LONDON—The Guardian has an opinion piece on a trend in the UK that "marks the death knell for any remaining aristocratic pretensions to pose as stewards of the national heritage."

"Our leading aristocrats seem always ready to take a few million more from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles than allow part of the nation's cultural firmament to remain on free and open display within the United Kingdom," writes Tristram Hunt.

First, Charles Saumarez Smith reclaimed Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks, says the paper, and then the Earl of Halifax decided "to rescind his loan [to the National Gallery] and sell Titian's Portrait of a Young Man."

As the British aristocracy has lost economic authority and political power since WWII, says the Guardian, "they have quietly recast themselves as the natural defenders of British history and heritage."

They fought to set up a system whereby their heirs could be "custodians" of British culture, Hunt says, and it worked. Now, however, "when push comes to shove, when dynastic enrichment comes into conflict with the national interest, mammon outweighs patriotism."

FOR MORE CLICK: The Guardian: "Greedy Old Masters"