The group needed �1.2m to save the painting

The Derwent Valley Mills Partnership were facing a Tuesday midnight deadline to come up with the �.1.2m needed to buy the Joseph Wright painting.

A last-minute pledge of �66,000 from a waste recycling organisation has pushed them over their target.

Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd - or Wren - has come up with the cash to save the painting of 18th Century industrialist Richard Arkwright.

Joyce Sanders from the partnership says they were overwhelmed by the response to their appeal for money to save the painting.

The portrait of Richard and his family was painted by Joseph Wright when the two men were at the peak of their careers.

Arkwright built the first mills of the industrial revolution in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, which is now a world heritage site.

The painting currently hangs in London's Tate Gallery, but it is hoped that in a couple of months' time it will be back in the county where it was created.