Why is the duke selling his Titians?

The battle to keep two monumental Titian paintings in Britain, works which Lucien Freud (pictured) has described as "simply the most beautiful pictures in the world", has turned the spotlight on their owner, Francis Ronald Egerton, the 7th and current Duke of Sutherland, and has also prompted the question: why's he selling them?

The paintings, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, have been on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland for the last 63 years, and are the centrepieces of The Bridgewater Collection, which was put together by the third Duke of Sutherland. The reason for the sale, according to the Duke, is that the value of these and other works in his ownership has grown to the point where he decided it would be prudent to review the collection in relation to the family's overall assets. The peer's non-art assets were valued by the Sunday Times Rich List at £30m. The two Titians alone are worth £300m on the open market, while the rest of the Bridgewater Collection is reportedly worth £1bn.

The Duke, who concentrates his efforts on farming on the borders, has offered each of the Titians to the nation at a knockdown price of £50m each and the National Gallery of Scotland and the National Gallery are attempting to raise the money, making appeals £100m to the government and from private individuals.

However, many in Scotland feel that the Duke should donate them by way of reparation for the behaviour of his forebear, Patrick Sellar, one of the most notorious figures during the highland clearances in the 18th century, where crofters were cast out of their homes so that wealthy landowners could introduce sheep farming. According to one account, Sellar found an old woman too ill to be moved from her home. His response: "Damn her, the old witch. She has lived too long. Let her burn!" The house was promptly set alight, killing the women in the process.