BRITAIN LETS GETTY PURCHASE MASTERPIECE.

Byline: Associated Press 

The government gave permission Friday for a major Renaissance painting to go to America because no British institution offered to match its $22.5 million price.

The John Paul Getty Museum in Malibu bought the 15th century work, ``The Holy Family with the Infant St. John'' by Fra Bartolommeo, but the government delayed giving an export license to allow for British bids. There were none.

The painting was sold by an aristocratic couple, Viscount Gage and his wife, who are battling to maintain their stately home, Firle Place, in Sussex, southern England.

``It was a very difficult decision,'' said Sue Bond, a spokeswoman for the family. ``But it makes more sense to sell one picture that will maintain the property for a long period than to sell paintings one by one . . . In the end you have a lot of space on the walls.''

The Getty Museum will loan the painting for six months to the National Gallery in London before it goes to California.

The viscount will get about half of the $22.5 million. The rest will go for taxes.

The painting, considered a masterpiece of the Renaissance era, will join a number of other famous works at the Getty, including Van Gogh's ``Irises'' and Titian's ``Venus and Adonis.''

``It's one of the very few great Italian Renaissance paintings that any American museum has bought in a long while,'' said museum director John Walsh.

Completed in Florence, Italy, in 1509, the painting depicts the Holy Family and St. John resting under a pomegranate tree.