BLICKLING, England -- Canaletto's 18th Century painting of the River Thames at Chelsea is one of Britain's national treasures.
It is also one of Cuba's.
Each has half of the landscape by Giovanni Canal -- or Canaletto -- a Venetian master of the cityscape. British experts hope to join what someone put asunder 250 years ago. Even a temporary reunion will do.
It might have been Canaletto himself who divided the 8-foot-wide canvas, which he painted in the 1740s while living in London.
Alastair Laing, art adviser for the National Trust -- guardian of the left side of the painting -- speculated that Canaletto divided the canvas after a buyer commissioned it and then backed out.
Smaller paintings were easier to sell, Laing said.
The left side ended up in a bedroom at Blickling Hall, a Jacobean mansion 100 miles northeast of London. Thousands of visitors a year see it when they tour the former home of the Earls of Buckingham. In the bottom right-hand corner, observant tourists will notice a small pole, perhaps an oar from some boat that doesn't quite fit into the picture.
The hand that holds the oar is in Havana's National Museum. The picture's right half came from Cuban collector Oscar Cintas, who apparently left it to the museum before the Cuban Revolution.
Now the National Trust would like to see the two halves reunited -- at least long enough to see what Canaletto originally painted.
Overtures to Cuba about reuniting the separated halves brought a cautious response.
``Cuba is not selling the Canaletto,'' Pedro de la Hoz, spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, told The Associated Press.
He was more receptive to the idea of an exhibition to unite the two parts temporarily.
``The Cuban authorities, as well as [students] and lovers of painting in our country, would like to admire both parts of Canaletto's famous painting sometime,'' de la Hoz said.
Laing, too, was interested in a joint exhibition.
``The two halves on their own are rather average Canalettos -- ours perhaps below average . . .'' he said, laughing. ``Put together . . . it would be a really splendid painting.''