LONDON — A rare turquoise and gold ring once owned by 19th century novelist Jane Austen looks set to remain in the UK after a British museum received a donation of 100,000 pounds ($154,800) to help stop its celebrity owner from taking it to the United States.
The Jane Austen's House Museum can now make a "serious expression" of intention to buy the piece, after being outbid at auction by U.S. pop singer Kelly Clarkson last year.
Clarkson, said to be a "huge fan" of Austen, was prevented from taking the ring out of the country after the British government placed a temporary export bar on it.
The donation ensured the museum was well placed to make an offer on the ring - one of only three known pieces of jewelry owned by Austen — which was bought by Clarkson for more than 150,000 pounds.
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"We always did want to acquire the ring for the museum but last year we felt like we couldn't raise enough money in time to go to the auction," Louise West, a fundraiser at the Jane Austen Museum told Reuters.
The museum has now raised 103,200 of the 152,450 pounds needed to keep the ring in the UK after launching a "grass roots" campaign and has until December to raise the remaining 49,000 pounds.
"If we are successful, it will go to the museum and will be put on display. You will be able to come and see it alongside the other jewelry owned by Jane Austen. So in a way it will be coming home," West added.
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Austen, author of such classics as "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma," also owned a turquoise bracelet and topaz cross, which are on display at Austen's former home in Hampshire, southern England.
The museum has invited Clarkson to visit the house where Austen spent the last eight years of her life and wrote and revised all of her six completed novels.
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"We do want her to know that, if she does relinquish ownership of the ring, that she'll be welcome," West added.
No comment from the singer was immediately available.
(Editing by Stephen Addison)