Jane Austen Ring Remaining In UK After Kelly Clarkson’s Purchase Bid Stopped


The Jane Austen ring purchased by pop star Kelly Clarkson will be remaining in the UK after a British museum spent 100,000 pounds to stop her bid.

Clarkson had originally purchased the ring at auction for more than $200,000, but the British government issued a temporary export ban on the ring to keep it from being brought to the United States. The Jane Austen’s House Museum, which was originally outbid for the ring, then made the 100,000 pound donation so it may have more time to raise money for the ring.

The museum has raised 103,200 of the 152,450 pounds needed to buy the ring, and is starting a grassroots campaign to raise the remainder by the end of the year.

“We always did want to acquire the ring for the museum but last year we felt like we couldn’t raise enough money in time to go to the auction,” Louise West, a fundraiser at the Jane Austen Museum, told Reuters.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey explained that British officials didn’t want to ring taken out of the country give its historic value.

“Jane Austen’s modest lifestyle and her early death mean that objects associated with her of any kind are extremely rare, so I hope that a UK buyer comes forward so this simple but elegant ring can be saved for the nation,” Vaizey told the BBC.

The museum plans to put the Jane Austen ring on display alongside other jewelry owned by the author, which includes a turquoise bracelet and a topaz cross.

Though the museum thwarted Kelly Clarkson’s attempt to buy the Jane Austen ring, it did extend a bit of a grace her way. Museum officials invited her to visit the home where Austen lived for eight years, writing and revising all of her six completed novels.

Kelly Clarkson and her representatives have not commented on the Jane Austen ring or the offer to visit the museum.

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