The Bouchardon Bust of Sir John Gordon, The Invergordon Vision:  

“A National Treasure at Home, A Future Secured”

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What it is:

A marble portrait bust of Sir John Gordon of Invergordon, carved in Rome in 1728 by the French sculptor Edmé Bouchardon (1698–1762). 81 cm high, 51 cm wide. The sculptor’s signature is on the left arm. The cartouche reads “JOHN GORDON ESQ.R”. Around the base is the sitter’s age (20) and the year, 1728. Sir John Gordon (1707–1783) was MP for Cromarty and Secretary for Scottish Affairs to Frederick, Prince of Wales, in the 1740s. His family founded the town of Invergordon, which takes its name from them.

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Bouchardon became one of the leading sculptors of 18th-century France and was appointed sculptor to King Louis XV. After returning from Rome, he worked for the royal workshops at the Palace of Versailles. His great lead group of Proteus, installed in 1740, still stands in the Bassin de Neptune, the largest fountain in the gardens of Versailles. His other famous works include the Fountain of the Four Seasons in Paris and the statue of Cupid carving his bow from the club of Hercules, now in the Louvre. The bust of Sir John Gordon is one of his earliest masterpieces, made while he was still a young student in Rome, before he found fame at the French court.

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Why it matters:

• It is the only classicising bust of a Scottish aristocrat by Bouchardon from the first half of the 18th century.

• It is one of only two such busts of British men by him. The other is not on public display.

• In 2026 the UK Government’s expert committee found that it meets all three Waverley criteria. That means it is outstanding for its connection with our history, for its beauty, and for the study of 18th-century sculpture.

Its journey:

• 1728: Made in Rome and kept by the Gordon family. It survived a fire at Invergordon Castle in the 19th century.

• 1930: Bought by Invergordon Town Council for £5 at the Kindeace House sale and placed in the Town Hall, for the people of the town.

• Later years: It passed to Ross & Cromarty District Council and then to The Highland Council. The Highland Council holds it on behalf of the Invergordon Common Good Fund.

• 2011: It was displayed here at the Invergordon Museum for one month.

• 2016–17: It was shown in a major international Bouchardon exhibition organised by the Louvre.

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The bust stays in the UK. The vision starts now.

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𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑!

They think they can buy our history. They think they can just crate up Sir John Gordon, the very man who founded our town, and lock him away overseas forever. We have until December to prove them wrong!

𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 

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​𝐀 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑: 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐖

We are not asking a few people for thousands. We are asking the entire Highland community to stand up.

If every person who loves our heritage chips in the price of a pint or a coffee, we win.

DONATE A FIVER:     Click the link and give £5.

Do it for the history, do it for the town, do it to show them that 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞!

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​​𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬. Others think we'll sit back and let this happen.

𝐋𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬, 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝-𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.

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OUR FIGHT TO KEEP THE BUST IN THE UK:​

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2023–2024: The decision to sell.

In August 2023 an unsolicited offer for the bust reached The Highland Council through Sotheby’s. The Council held a public consultation, which closed in March 2024 with only 68 local responses. In May 2024 the Black Isle and Easter Ross Area Committee recommended a sale. In November 2024 Tain Sheriff Court gave consent.

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2025: We offer another way.

In August 2025 we put forward an alternative to sale. Under our plan, the bust would come to Invergordon on a long-term loan of up to 30 years. The Council would keep ownership, and the Common Good Fund would get a steady income. In the same month we made a Freedom of Information request to understand how the decision to sell was made (see “Our fight for transparency” below).

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January 2026: The nation agrees.

The UK Government placed a temporary export bar on the bust. It recognised the bust as a work of national importance and gave a UK buyer the chance to keep it in Britain.

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Spring 2026: Making the case.

We wrote an open letter to the press, MPs, MSPs and Highland councillors. We sent a formal proposal and a statement of case to the Export Reviewing Committee. In May 2026 the Scottish Information Commissioner found that the Council had failed to respond to our information request as the law requires. Our supporters’ petition gathered signatures from across Scotland and beyond, and respected voices joined the campaign, including the historian Sir Tom Devine.

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July 2026: We step forward as the UK buyer.

On 1 July 2026 the museum signed an Option Agreement with The Highland Council. That gives us until 1 December 2026 to match the price of £3.1 million. We launched our crowdfunder, “Bring Sir John Home”, and wrote to the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture.

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Autumn 2026: Asking the Council to look again.

At the full Highland Council meeting on 29 October, a councillor tried to raise the bust as an urgent matter, but it was not allowed onto the agenda. We believe a democratic decision should be able to take account of new facts. We have written to every member of the Black Isle and Easter Ross Area Committee ahead of its meeting on 9 November. We have asked them to pause the sale and consider a long-term loan to the museum. Under that proposal, we would upgrade our building to the standard needed to display the bust safely. Community groups, local associations and businesses across the area are also signing a joint letter asking the Council to reconsider and to meet us before 1 December.

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Why We Cannot Simply Buy the Bust

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A small museum facing a £3.1 million price.

The Invergordon Naval Museum & Heritage Centre is run entirely by volunteers. No museum of our size could raise £3.1 million in five months on its own. In the UK, museums buy works of national importance with the help of the national heritage funders, especially the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. That is how the export system is meant to work.

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We followed the proper route.

In spring 2026 we sent an Expression of Interest to the National Heritage Memorial Fund. In June its Panel agreed that the bust is an exceptional and rare sculpture. It also supported our wish to acquire it and agreed that it has great potential for public engagement. But the Panel raised ethical concerns about how the bust came to be sold. It wanted to consult other national heritage bodies before accepting an application.

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The funders’ answer.

In July 2026 we were told that neither the National Heritage Memorial Fund nor the National Lottery Heritage Fund could consider an application. The UK’s heritage bodies had agreed that the Council’s sale of this publicly owned bust raises concerns comparable to an unethical sale from a public museum collection. Public funders cannot pay to buy back something that is already in public ownership and is being sold to raise money.

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We agree with them.

The people of Invergordon bought this bust in 1930. It already belongs to the town, through the Invergordon Common Good Fund. Asking the community to raise £3.1 million to buy its own property back makes no sense. Neither does spending public heritage money to do it.

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The Catch-22.

The export bar exists to give a UK buyer the chance to keep the bust in Britain. In practice, the funders who would normally make that possible cannot take part, because of the way the sale has been handled. Private donations alone cannot close the gap before 1 December. Unless the Council changes course, the bust will be sold to an overseas private buyer and will leave the UK for good.

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Why This Matters Beyond Invergordon!

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The national rules on unethical sales.

In August 2024 the main UK museum and heritage bodies published a Joint Statement on Unethical Sales from Collections. The signatories include Museums Galleries Scotland, the Museums Association, Art Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The statement sets out what can happen when a public body sells cultural property mainly to raise money. The consequences can last up to five years:

• Museums run by that body can lose their Accreditation.

• They can lose access to funding schemes that require Accreditation, including Museums Galleries Scotland funding.

• They can lose membership of the Museums Association.

• National museums may decline to lend objects or work in partnership with them.

This has happened before. In 2014 Northampton Borough Council sold the ancient Egyptian statue of Sekhemka. The town’s museums lost their Accreditation and, with it, access to important funding.

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The Highlands could pay the price.

The Highland Council owns the collections and buildings of many museums, archives and libraries across the region, most of them run by High Life Highland. Many independent museums and heritage groups work with the Council, borrow from its collections, or bid for funding alongside it. If funders and national bodies come to view the Highlands less favourably, every heritage project in the region could find support harder to win. Donors also need to trust that what they give will stay in public hands.

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A one-off sale against long-term damage.

The Council has said the money will benefit Invergordon. We believe the long-term cost, to the town’s reputation and to heritage funding across the Highlands, could be far greater than a single payment. That is why we are asking the Council to pause the sale and consider a long-term loan of the bust to the museum instead. Under that plan, the bust stays in public ownership, goes on public display in Invergordon, and the Common Good Fund keeps its asset.

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Our Fight for Transparency - FOI

 

Why we asked.

The bust belongs to the people of Invergordon through the Common Good Fund. We believe the community has a right to know how the decision to sell it was made: how the bust was valued, how the consultation was run, and how the sale was arranged.

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August 2025: Our request. 

On 15 August 2025 we made a Freedom of Information request to The Highland Council about the sale. The law gives councils 20 working days to reply. No reply came.

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October 2025: We asked for a review.

On 6 October 2025 we asked the Council to review its failure to respond. Again, there was no reply.

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January 2026: We went to the Commissioner.

We appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner, the independent regulator for Freedom of Information in Scotland.

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May 2026: The Commissioner rules in our favour.

On 5 May 2026 the Commissioner issued Decision 095/2026. It found that the Council had failed to respond as the law requires and ordered it to reply by 19 June 2026.

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June 2026: Refused on “commercial” grounds.

The Council replied on the evening of the deadline, apologised for the delay, and refused to release the information. It said disclosure would harm commercial interests and could give the museum an unfair advantage, because we had by then become the UK buyer. We disagree, for four reasons:

• The law says a request must be judged on the effect of releasing information to the public, not on who is asking.

• This is not an ordinary commercial sale. It sits inside the UK’s export control process for national treasures.

• The Council did not consider releasing part of the information, with only genuinely sensitive details removed.

• The public interest in knowing how a £3 million public asset is being sold is overwhelming.

We appealed to the Commissioner again the same day.

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August 2026: A partial release.

After our second appeal, the Council released some of the information. But two big gaps remain:

• Missing attachments. Many of the emails released mention attached documents, including the consultation document, court papers and Common Good Fund reports. Only the covering emails were provided. The Council has given no reason for leaving the attachments out.

• Sotheby’s correspondence withheld. The Council is still withholding every message with Sotheby’s, the auction house acting for it, about how the bust was valued and marketed.

 

Autumn 2026: A race against time.

The Commissioner’s office faces a very large backlog and has told us our second appeal is still waiting for an investigator. In October we asked the Commissioner to treat the case as urgent. The sale could be completed on 1 December 2026, and information released after that date will come too late to make any difference.

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Why this matters.

A decision this important, about an asset this valuable, should be made in the open. More than a year after our first request, the community still cannot see how its bust was valued or why it is being sold. We will keep pressing for full disclosure.

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Once the bust leaves Invergordon, it will not come back.

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How you can help:

• Write to your local Highland councillor and ask them to put the bust back on the agenda.

• Sign the petition: Petition by Jane Mackinnon "Stop this Scandalous Amputation of our Scottish Heritage"

• Donate to our crowdfunder, “Bring Sir John Home”.

• Share this page using #BringSirJohnHome.​