Letter: Today's investment is tomorrow's treasure

Sir: The art world is once again expressing its outrage over the sale of one of the country's finest paintings to an overseas buyer ('Getty museum pays pounds 11m for Turner', 24 February).

Whatever the rights and wrongs may be, I suggest that a condition of the sale should be the commissioning of a replacement work by a living British artist. There would be no empty space on the wall and, who knows, if a wise choice were made, in a hundred years' time there might be another 'treasure' for export.

Yours faithfully,

A. M. VISSER

Cirencester,

Gloucestershire

24 February