Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai Jointly Acquired by the National Portrait Gallery and Getty

The innovative collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery and Getty to jointly acquire Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai (Omai) has been successful.

The National Portrait Gallery has raised £25 million which, thanks in huge part to a grant of £10m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, an Art Fund grant of £2.5m, together with a matching amount from Getty in the U.S., makes up the £50m needed to acquire the painting.

The National Portrait Gallery and Art Fund’s fundraising campaign has been made possible thanks to an extraordinary collaborative effort, including:

• An exceptional grant of £10m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, one of its most significant awards for saving a heritage treasure for the UK
• An Art Fund grant of £2.5m, the largest in its history
• Major contributions were also received from The Portrait Fund, the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation and Julia and Hans Rausing, and support also came from the Idan and Batia Ofer Family Foundation and David & Emma Verey Charitable Trust, as well as many other generous trusts, foundations, and individuals.
• Donations from over 2,000 Art Fund members, National Portrait Gallery supporters and members of the public, giving gifts of all sizes

The shared ownership of the work and strategic partnership between the National Portrait Gallery and Getty is the result of an innovative model of international collaboration that enables and maximizes public access to the work in perpetuity. The two institutions will share the painting for public exhibition, research, and conservation care.

The painting will first be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery when it reopens on June 22, following a major transformation project and will later will be shown at other institutions across the UK. Mai will travel periodically between the two countries, sharing time equally between them. The first Getty presentation will be in 2026, including the period when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympic Games.

Sir Joshua Reynolds’ spectacular Portrait of Mai (Omai) holds a pivotal place in global art history, depicting the first Polynesian to visit Britain, and is widely regarded as the finest portrait by one of Britain’s greatest artists. Known as “Omai” in England, Mai (ca. 1753-1779) was a native of Raiatea, an island now part of French Polynesia, who traveled from Tahiti to England with Captain James Cook. He spent the years 1774–76 in London, where he was received by royalty and the intellectual elite, and indeed became something of a celebrity. Mai returned to his homeland in 1777 and died there two years later.