So now, the UK’s National Gallery is free to pursue the purchase of the Duke of Northumberland’s Raphael canvas. But was one painting really worth all the fuss, not to mention the £11.5 million the government doled out? The Guardian’s arts editor says yes, calling the painting “a spellbinding masterpiece with all the concentrated beauty of a miniature, coupled with the grandeur of a major Renaissance painting.” But the head of the National Art Collections Fund thinks it absurd to be spending such a wad of cash on “a piece of flagship culture,” especially one which has no specific relevance to Great Britain, and particularly when the National Gallery already owns eight other canvases by the same artist.