A Turner painting considered a U.K. national treasure and worth £5.4 million ($7.9 million) will head to America now that a temporary export ban has been lifted, the U.K's Press Association reports.

The 1808 work, Pope's Villa at Twickenham, was bought by an anonymous American bidder at Sotheby's Old Master Paintings sale last July in London. But the U.K. government then temporarily barred its export, giving potential British buyers of the work a chance to match the auction price or at least express serious intent to do so.

"No formal expression of interest in purchasing the painting has been received," said a spokesman for Britain's Department of Culture, Media and Sport. "Sadly there are very few institutions that would be able to raise this sort of money."

The work was put on the market by Lady Elizabeth Ashcombe to help pay the bills for maintaining the Sudeley estate. The family has sold other valuable works in past, including Poussin's Temps Calme, which went to Los Angeles's Getty Museum for £15 million.