Hexham Abbey has been told it cannot sell a painting worth up to £150,000 because it should be kept for the nation.

The 16th-century painting 'The Descent of Christ from the Cross' by Flemish artist Pieter Coecke Van Aelst was given to the Northumbrian abbey in 1947 by an anonymous donor.

It has been on loan to a gallery since 1989, but the gallery no longer wants it. As the painting needs to be insured up to £200,000 the church felt the insurance premiums were prohibitively expensive and would detract from the its mission and ministry, and so looked to sell it.

But such items cannot be sold in the Church of England without the permission of the Church authorities, and on appealing to the CofE's consistory court the abbey has been barred from selling the work.

Euan Duff, chancellor of the Diocese of Newcastle, and a judge of the consistory court, said that selling the painting would mean it was "lost to the nation" in a manner that "diminishes the nation's heritage".

He said the abbey had not sufficiently investigated all the options, and recommended that another gallery be found to house the painting.

Church warden Chris Wilson told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle: "It's not straight forward to know what the best thing is to do. We are going to be working with the dioceses to find some sensible way forward. At the minute we are in the situation where there is no obvious suitable place to put the painting. It's going to take a while to sort out."

"The cash could benefit the church but the judgement did leave open the possibility of [reconsidering the issue] if a financial crisis arises."

The painting is the centrepiece of a triptych, the other two paintings of which are currently held in San Francisco.