£3m race to save painter's legacy

The time-capsule house of William Roberts, a major 20th-century British artist, is likely to be sold and its contents dispersed in the next few weeks unless more than £3 million can be found to turn it into a museum.

The Victorian house in Primrose Hill where Roberts lived and worked for more than 40 years has not been changed since his death in 1980. However its future has been uncertain since the artist's only son, John, died suddenly six years ago without having made a will. Because there were no close heirs the property automatically went to the Treasury.

After John's death, close friends concerned about the fate of the home and paintings formed the William Roberts Society, which has campaigned to keep house and contents together, including more than 500 paintings and drawings by Roberts (removed for safe-keeping to the Tate), in accordance with the family's wishes.

However, at the end of March the Treasury declared that while it was prepared to sell the house to the society - subject to "detailed proposals" for the property - it had only until the end of May to raise the necessary money. Otherwise the house would be sold on the open market.

Time has all but run out. Pleas from English Heritage to the Treasury for an extension of the deadline have so far been met with silence. A Treasury spokesman told the Standard: "We told them we would like them to get back to us with submissions before the end of May."

Society secretary Marion Hutton said: "We would need around £3.5million to buy the house and provide an endowment."

A sum of this order would take more than a few weeks to raise.

Martin O'Rourke of English Heritage calls the simply decorated house "a rare survival and a unique combination of house and studio from a time when artists tended to be poor and to move from attic to attic. It's also part of the cultural milieu that developed into modernism, so is of special interest and relevance today."

Brian Sewell, art critic of the Evening Standard, stresses the importance of keeping it intact. "The studios in which artists worked and the houses in which they lived give extraordinary insights that can be had in no other way." His solution would be for the Tate to take over Roberts's house and run it as an outpost as it does Barbara Hepworth's house and studio in St Ives.

Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, which is storing the work from Roberts's house free of charge, said: "William Roberts is an important figure in 20th century British art and the Tate has a strong collection of his work. Two paintings are currently on display at Tate Liverpool and his work The Cinema will be included in a display at Tate Britain from 11 June."

Roberts's widow, Sarah, and their son, John, continued to live in the house after William died, until their own deaths in 1993 and 1995 respectively (he lived in the upper part of the house, she in the lower). They devoted their time to investigating ways to preserve the building and William Roberts's artistic legacy.