Market news: The National Gallery to acquire The Italian Woman, owned by Lucian Freud Lucian Freud left a valuable painting by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot to the National Gallery in his will, it has been announced. Freud bought the c1870 painting of The Italian Woman, or Woman with a Yellow Sleeve at Christie's in New York in 2001 for what was then a record $2.86 million (£1.75 million) - four times more than estimated. Another version of the painting is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and X-rays have shown that the woman was originally painted playing a cello, hence the position of her hands. "Lucian loved the girl in the painting," says Freud's long-time assistant, David Dawson. The National Gallery would appear to have had an interest for some time. In 2008, Dawson photographed Freud showing the painting to Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery, in his London house . Reports suggest the painting has been valued at £5 million, but the Arts Council said only that it had been acquired to satisfy £2.34 million of inheritance tax under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme (along with three sculptures by Degas which have been temporarily allocated to the Courtauld Gallery). The scheme allows national museums to acquire works of art at reduced prices in lieu of inheritance tax. Sad news that Agnew's, one of Britain's longest established commercial galleries, is to close down. In its heyday it was the grandest of galleries, inspiring one client, Sir Henry Tate, to found his own. In 2008, Agnew's sold its Bond Street premises for a reported £25 million, moving to a smaller space in Albermarle Street. However, the chairman, Julian Agnew, 69, says he will now deal Old Master paintings privately from home. "We are not in debt," he told The Daily Telegraph, "but we need to make a million pounds profit every year just to pay the overheads here." Also announced, Christie's-owned Haunch of Venison gallery is to focus solely on Christie's private sales division. Prints and drawings were among the best sellers in New York last week. A collection of Dürer prints belonging to Samuel Josefowitz included a record £866,500 for a 1515 wood engraving of a rhinoceros. A pastel of a bridesmaid by Manet's pupil Eva Gonzalès quadrupled estimates to sell for a record $2.5 million, and a Gainsborough pastel sold for £1.5 million. This portrait cost London dealer Philip Mould £60,000 in 1992. Perhaps the biggest surprise was a young girl by "a follower of Rubens," sent by the Metropolitan Museum with a $20,000 estimate. Clearly some thought it might have been a real Rubens, as bidders drove the price to $626,500.