The Maritime Museum in Amsterdam has paid over €2m for two late 17th century English tapestries based on drawings by Dutch sea battle painter Willem van de Velde the Elder, the NRC reports.

The museum announced the arrival of the tapestries ‘two weeks before Brexit’ having obtained the necessary export licence through close cooperation with museums in London and Amsterdam, the paper said.

The purchase, the largest both in size and cost the museum has ever made, was made with the support of the government national heritage fund.

The tapestries depict scenes from the Battle at Solebay in 1672 when a combined English-French fleet attacked the Dutch Republic. The Dutch fleet, led by Michiel de Ruyter, managed to foil an invasion by means of a surprise attack using a ship filled with gunpowder. De Ruyter’s ploy not only avoided the English setting foot on land but sank the Royal James, a brand new flagship carrying 800 crew and 102 canon.

Willem van de Velde the Elder, a renowned painter of sea battles, was present at the battle and made a series of drawings onboard a nearby sailing ship. The outcome of the battle was undecided but, since Van de Velde was working in the service of Charles II, the perspective was that of a glorious naval victory for the English.

Two sets of six tapestries were made based on the drawings, the first of which still forms part of the British royal collection. The second set, of which the maritime Museum now owns two, was commissioned in 1688 by James II, Duke of York. Three of the tapestries are in an American collection while the whereabouts of the fourth tapestry is unknown.

The biggest tapestry purchased by the museum measures 6 by 3.3 metres and shows the fleets’ formation, ready to do battle. The second tapestry, 4.5 by 3.3 metres, shows the burning English flagship.

The NRC said former owner of the tapestries, art dealer Simon Franses, said he considered himself ‘lucky’ in a letter to the museum. Franses bought both tapestries in 2014 for €94,000 at Christie’s in London. The auction house had done little to advertise the sale and potential buyers were put off by the state the tapestries were in. Franses had the tapestries restored.

The tapestries will be on show for the first time on October 2 when the museum is mounting the first ever retrospective of the works of Willem van de Velde the Elder and his painter son Willem van de Velde the Younger.