A PRICELESS painting by a Renaissance master worth millions of pounds will go on show at a North-East museum next year.

The highlight of next year's events at the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, will be the loan of Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks from April to June.

The painting is one of the most important Renaissance art treasures in the country.

It will return to the North-East after it was sold earlier this year to the National Gallery by the Duke of Northumberland for £22m.

The gallery decided to purchase the 29cm by 23cm painting following an export ban imposed by the Government when the Duke threatened to sell it to the J Paul Getty Trust in California for nearly £35m.

Lesley Taylor, the chairman of the Friends of the Bowes Museum, and one of the museum's trustees, said: "Part of the agreement when it was sold was that the painting would be shown in a number of different venues.

"We are obviously very pleased that we have been chosen to host it."

The museum is hoping next year's events will follow up on the success of this year, where exhibitions of work by Monet and Toulouse-Lautrec helped attract record visitor numbers.

In March next year, the British museum will loan more than 300 artefacts, including archaeological finds from Egypt and the Sudan and recent discoveries spanning the Neolithic period to the 11th Century.

The Sudan: Ancient Treasures exhibition will run until January 2006.

Mrs Taylor said: "The Sudan treasures is another exhibition that's going to be amazing..

"It is another example of top-class exhibitions coming to Barnard Castle, which we are delighted about for the museum and also for Teesdale as it is really putting the area on the map."

The museum's 2005 events programme will begin in January with an exhibition dedicated to Francois Boucher, the 18th Century rococo French painter.

As well as a selection of Boucher's landscapes, the exhibition will contain drawings from artists including Watteau, Fragonard, Natoire and Robert.

Starting in February, an exhibition dedicated to Norman Parkinson will feature a selection of Parkinson's fashion photography, which concentrated on the style and glamour of the 1950s.

This will be complemented with fashions from the era taken from the museum's collection.

An exhibition devoted to English romantic painter John Sell Cotman will run from May to July. The collection will look at the young Cotman's series of watercolours based on the River Greta, in Teesdale, and its surroundings.

Finally, an exhibition on Art Nouveau will be held from August next year until January 2006.