BURY Art Gallery has failed in its bid for a painting which was in the frame to be a focal point of its centenary celebrations.

The oil painting, Dancing Geisha Girl, was inscribed to local businessman and councillor Alexander Taylor, one of the gallery's founding fathers, by the Victorian artist Edward Atkinson Hornel.

Gallery curator Richard Burns had hoped that he could acquire the piece for £40,000 after canvassing £28,000 towards the piece from funding bodies, with the gallery making up the difference.

But in an auction at Christie's in Edinburgh, the gallery was outbid by a mystery trading company based in London. The painting raised £57,550, a world auction record for Hornel's work.

Mr Burns said: "It's a shame we could not have raised more but the person who bought it probably would not have stopped at £58,000."

"This is a case of the one that got away. It is very disappointing after a few weeks of intense activity."

Mr Burns said that he still hoped to make a suitable acquisition for next year's celebrations: "We've been so successful in getting funds that I think we definitely will be buying something for the centenary."

And the gallery must now set its sights elsewhere if it is to find a suitable centrepiece for next year's celebrations.

In the picture now will be any paintings that were owned by Thomas Wrigley, whose collection forms an important basis of the gallery's exhibits. His family donated around 50 oil paintings to the town on condition that the gallery was built.

The Wrigley Collection will go on display in full next January -- for the first time since 1901-- as part of the celebrations.