Indirect Sale

Descendants of the man who allegedly killed England's second Norman king are offering a triptych depicting the Conquest, the king's death and the supposed perpetrator's escape. William II, called Rufus, had little respect for conventional pieties and did not marry or breed, thus making himself odious to the Church and abhorrent to God and provoking rumours of sodomy. Having received brief mention among the denizens of the Gallows and Glockenspiel, he died from an arrow wound which he received while hunting. The arrow was supposedly fired by one Walter Tirel, the son of a knight who had participated in the Battle of Hastings, though the question whether it was carried to the royal lung by God's design or man's has never been satisfactorily resolved. The triptych, which may or may not be authentically Norman, has elicited offers of purchase by potential buyers in Saudi Arabia and the USA; but Tirel's family say they would prefer to reach an agreement with a British public authority about donating it to a museum, which might then be able to stay open for another year or two by selling it to someone in Saudi Arabia or the USA.