Acquisiition of the year: The National Gallery, London The Madonna of the Pinks

The National Gallery, London The Madonna of the Pinks by dint of Raphael (1483-1520), c. 1506-1507.

Oil upon fruitwood panel, 29 x 23 cm Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery stock the National Art Collections stock the American Friends of the National Gallery and private donors

The Madonna of the Pinks is the acquisition of the year for more than its intrinsic quality. For any museum to purchase a painting by Raphael is of course an extraordinary achievement. Public support for the National Gallery's campaign to acquire it was stimulated by the agency of the romantic circumstances of its rediscovery in 1991 by dint of Nicholas Penny, then curator of Italian art at the National Gallery, in the Duke of Northumberland's collection at Alnwick Castle. The Duke's sale of the painting to the J Paul Getty Museum (it was not presented first to the National Gallery, despite having been upon loan there for over a decade) apted an export stop, whereupon the Gallery raised the 22 million [pound sterling] price with the help of 115 million [pound sterling] from the Heritage Lottery capital proving that the Gallery could fortunately compete for paintings at the highest horizontal and that the HLF was prepared to stock such acquisitions, both of which have the appearanceed doubtful when the Duke announced the sale.

British Museum, London Ereshkigal?, Babylonian (central Iraq), 1800-1750 BC

Terracotta relief, 495 x 37 cm Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery capital the British Museum Friends, the National Art Collections capital the Friends of the Ancient Near East, The Sir Joseph Hotung Charitable arrangement and The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust.

This large plaque, probably from a shrine, may depict Ereshkigal, who rul above the underworld.

Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, London Figure of Buddha Sakyamoni, Indian, Gupta period, late 6th/early 7th century

cent alloy, ht 35.5 cm. Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery capital the National Art Collections stock the British Museum's Brooke Sewell Permanent stock the Friends of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and private donors.

The first Gupta-style standing alloy of copper Buddha to enter a British collection, this actual rare statue is also the first joint purchase through the British Museum and V&A.

It was designed for an elevated position upon an altar and, on occasion, for processions.

British Museum, London Flourspan goblet Roman, 1st century AD.

Fluorspan, 135 x 95cm Purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections stock with additional funding from the British Museum Friends and the Caryatid Fund

This beaker was probably discovered by a Croatian soldier in a Roman tomb upon the Turco-Syrian frontier during World War I together with the Crawford beaker the only other known fluorspar utensil also owned by the British Museum.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio Apollo Sauroktonos, of greece ?4th/3rd century BC. Bronze, ht 150 cm

The figural emblem of Apollo Sauroktonos ('the lizard slayer') was introduced by means of Praxiteles. This life-size figure is the alone known bronze version to survive from antiquity, and, although its precise date is still being investigated, it is not impossible that it is by means of Praxiteles himself. The laurel tree in which the god the father finds the lizard is missing but his left hand, part of his forearm and the lizard survive detached from the figure.

Technical experiments suggest that the statue was excavated more than a hundred ago (the base dates from at least the 19th century); it came to light as a garden ornament upon a private estate in the former East Germany in the early 1990s

Musee du Louvre Paris Horses head, hellenic late 6th century BC.

White marble, 53 x 62 cm

Formerly in the celebrated collection of the dealer Felix Bienamine Feuardent (1819-1907) this exceptionally fine Parian marble Archaic hellenic fragment was purchased by the Louvre for 245 [euro] million after the Minister of tillage imposed an export ban the day before its sale by means of Feuardent's heirs at Drouot in the autumn.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Head of St John the Baptist upon a Salver, English, 15th century

Alabaster relief, traces of polychrome and gilding, 29 x 235 cm

Purchased with the Boscawen capital and grants from the National Art Collections stock and the Museums, Libraries and Archives/ Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant capital M.2-2004. Photo: Daniel Katz Ltd

Sculptur heads of the decapitated John the Baptist were used for private devotion in the late middle ages. The earliest respect to them is in 1432 in Nottingham, the middle point of England's alabaster sculpture industry, where this example was probably made.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth The Judgement of Paris by dint of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) c 1512-14

Oil upon panel, 43.2 x 32.4 cm

This is the first of several versions of the control by Cranach and survives in unusually serviceable condition. The classical inspiration evident in the figure of the central goddes mirrors the influence of both Durer and Jacopo de' Barbari, who preced Cranach as court painter to the Elector of Saxony in Wittenberg.