No jumping borders

The Kongouro From New Holland was not painted in the flesh (Source: Department for culture, media AN / PA)The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on two oil paintings that gave the 18th Century British public their first chance to see what a kangaroo and a dingo looked like.

However, potential buyers will have to come up with $7 million if the two George Stubbs’ works are to stay in the UK. Stubbs used spoken accounts from members of Captain James Cook’s expedition to make his drawings.

He also made sketches after inflating the preserved skin of a kangaroo.

The Kongouro From New Holland (The Kangaroo; Australia was then called New Holland) and Portrait of a Large Dog (The Dingo) were first shown at London’s Royal Academy in 1773.