DOZENS of leading figures from the worlds of art and entertainment have joined the growing campaign to stop the sale of the Zurbaran paintings.

The protestors – including TV presenters Loyd Grossman and Jools Holland – condemned the Church Commissioners for trying to sell the £15m pictures in secret.

Their joint letter criticises the commissioners for ignoring the importance of keeping the Zurbarans “in their present setting” of Auckland Castle, in Bishop Auckland – their home for 250 years.

And it throws doubt on whether they have the legal right to auction them, given the widespread belief that they are “fixtures and fittings”

of a Grade I-listed building.

The boost to the campaign comes as a working group headed by the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham prepares to hold its first meeting in an attempt to find an alternative solution.

The commissioners agreed to wait for the group’s report – telling MPs: “We will listen”

– but in another U-turn completed within 24 hours, insisted the sale would go ahead next summer.

Now fresh pressure has been applied by the letter, whose signatories include: ● Dr Xavier Bray – a curator at the National Gallery, London; ● Dr Mark Girouard – one of the country’s leading architectural historians; ● Sir Nicholas Goodison – former chairman of the Art Fund and the London Stock Exchange; ● Loyd Grossman – the TV presenter, chef and musician, best known for fronting the programme Through The Keyhole; ● Jools Holland – the pianist, singer and TV presenter; ● Lucinda Lambton – the Sunderland- born writer, photographer and broadcaster, specialising in architecture; ● John Leighton – directorgeneral of The National Galleries of Scotland; ● Sandy Nairne – director of the National Portrait Gallery; ● Sir Hugh Roberts – director of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of the Queen’s Works of Art; ● Sir Nicholas Serota – director of the Tate gallery; ● John Whittingdale MP – Conservative chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee.

The letter read: “The recent decision of the Church Commissioners to sell the outstanding series of paintings by Francisco Zurbaran at Bishop Auckland Palace, County Durham, is deeply to be regretted.

“Assuming that the commissioners have the legal right to sell the pictures at all, their decision disregards the importance of the paintings in their present setting, as well as the local significance of the bishop’s palace itself.

“The decision appears to have been taken without an informed public discussion.

Nor has there been appropriate wider consultation, either regionally or nationally. We urge the Church Commissioners to reconsider the proposed sale.”

The letter was published in Country Life magazine, which condemned the commissioners for being concerned with “cash in hand” – rather than the fate of a precious piece of history.

As The Northern Echo revealed, the Zurbarans cannot be sold until next summer because of a lack of suitable slots at London’s leading auction houses creating breathing space for opposition to grow.