THE British Museum is appealing to visitors to secure for the nation a rare Roman sculpture formerly displayed at Duncombe Park, near Helmsley.

The museum is trying to raise £662,000 to acquire the marble sculpture of the Dog of Alcibiades, dating from the second century.

Government ministers blocked the export of the statue, which belongs to Lord and Lady Faversham, to keep it in the country, as an American deal had previously been discussed.

The British Museum has until August 26 to raise the funds to keep the sculpture and the public have been invited to contribute to the fund.

The dog is one of the few examples of a Hellenistic animal sculpture that was copied in the Roman period, indicating that it must have been of particular importance.

It could have been connected with a civic movement in Epirus, in Greece, as the Molossian hound was native to that region. Epirus was sacked by the Romans in 168BC and a famous bronze dog with local patriotic significance might well have been carried back to Rome by the conquerors.

Henry Constantine Jennings acquired the dog in the 1750s while staying in Rome, and it became so famous in England that the owner became known as Dog-Jennings.

Jennings, a very colourful character who was a collector and gambler, was forced to sell the dog in 1816. It was bought by the owners of Duncombe Park where it was placed in the Grand Hall until the 1980s.

Updated: 11:35 Tuesday, August 07, 2001