A BIG-spending Israeli billionaire art lover and a wildlife documentary doyen have won an international tug-of-war over two of Australia's most iconic cultural treasures. A 40-year dream by the National Gallery of Australia to buy from the UK two 18th Century paintings by artist George Stubbs of a kangaroo and a dingo - the first European depictions of our unique wildlife - was shattered yesterday. A last-minute donation of $2.5 million by shipping magnate Eyal Ofer was enough to ensure that an appeal led by doco-maker David Attenborough raised enough to outbid the Aussies and keep the prized artworks in the UK. Mr Ofer, whose wealth is estimated at $6 billion by Forbes magazine, lives in Monaco, but his Zodiac Maritime Agencies, which owns a 150-vessel fleet, is London based in London. The paintings - Kongouro from New Holland and Portrait of a Large Dog - will take pride of place in the new Eyal Ofer Gallery at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. But a spokeswoman for the National Gallery of Australia said it "forever deprives Australian audiences of permanent access to two of the most historically significant works of art in the story of our nation's visual heritage." The oil paintings were commissioned by naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, who had accompanied Captain James Cook to Australia aboard the Endeavour. German authorities say Nazi-looted art found in a Munich flat include works by Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec and Courbet. Stubbs based his paintings on sketches and descriptions from Sir Joseph and animal skins taken back to Britain. They were first exhibited in 1773 and have been owned by descendants of Sir Joseph's wife ever since. After three years of negotiations, the National Gallery had bid $9.5 million in a private treaty to buy the two works and bring them to Canberra. But in January UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey slapped on a temporary export ban and Mr Attenborough launched a huge public appeal to raise $10 million to keep them. The donation from 63-year-old Mr Ofer, whose interests include a stake in Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, clinched the deal just hours before the ban was due to be lifted yesterday morning. "The National Gallery of Australia is extremely disappointed with the outcome of this British process," the spokeswoman said. Take a sneak peek at the latest exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, 'America: Painting a Nation', where you'll meet Americans of all backgrounds. They had been on the gallery's acquisitions wishlist since 1972 - a decade before it opened. The two Stubbs works represent the beginning of Australia's rich visual culture and the Gallery believes they have much greater relevance to the development of Australian imagery and art than to Britain's maritime history. The pair were the first oil paintings about Australia. For more than 60 years the image of the kangaroo was the basis for countless popular engravings around the world, with 45 of them already in the National Gallery of Australia's collection. The kangaroo on Australia's first coat of arms was based on the painting. "The Stubbs representation of this - the most well-known of Australian animals - has come to symbolise the Australian continent, while his image of the dingo was the first to be made of Australia's wild dog," the spokeswoman said. Mr Attenborough was delighted by the "exciting" success of the "Save Our Stubbs" appeal. "These two pictures, so important in the history of zoological discovery, are to remain where they were commissioned and painted," he said. But Brisbane-based art dealer Philip Bacon, a former National Gallery board member, said he was surprised by the sudden enthusiasm in the UK for the paintings. "They have been languishing (in a private collection) for years and rarely seen," Mr Bacon said. I'm very disappointed really.