A gold and turquoise ring once owned by Jane Austen and purchased by the singer Kelly Clarkson at auction last year will be staying in Great Britain, thanks to a successful fund-raising campaign by the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Hampshire.
The museum, located in the cottage where Austen spent the last eight years of her life, announced on its Web page that it had raised enough money to match Ms. Clarkson’s purchase price of $236,000. On Aug. 1 the British minister of culture, Ed Vaizey, had issued an order temporarily banning the export of the ring.
Ms. Clarkson, who also owns a replica of the ring, said in a statement she was glad the original had found a permanent home in Great Britain. “The ring is a beautiful national treasure and I am happy to know that so many Jane Austen fans will get to see it at Jane Austen’s House Museum,†she said.
The museum had previously said that it hoped to display the ring in an exhibition celebrating the bicentennial of “Mansfield Park,†in which Fanny Price is given an amber cross by her brother, much like Austen’s own brother, who gave her an amber cross. That cross, one of three pieces of jewelry known to have been owned by Austen, is also held by the museum.
