A MUSEUM exhibit depicting a ferocious battle between a tiger and a python is attracting world wide interest.

Two photographers from the world famous National Geographic magazine jetted into the UK from New York to snap the display at Rossendale Museum, Rawtenstall, for a special feature next April - the 200th anniversary since the sculpture was created.

Dubbed The Royal Tiger, the piece of manipulated taxidermy is also the subject of a famous painting which hangs in The Louvre in Paris.

It is one of the few surviving pieces of collector and naturalist William Bullock’s vast collection of curiosities which was donated to Rossendale Museum in 1930.

Bullock, from Birmingham, amassed 32,000 artefacts between 1795 and 1819 which he displayed in his specially commissioned gallery, the Egyptian Hall, in London’s Piccadilly and exhibited around Europe.

A number of Bullock’s artefacts were brought back from their voyages by Captain Cook’s men.

The painting hanging in the Louvre gallery by Vicomte Alexandre-Isidore Leroy de Barde is titled ‘Tigre Royal embroire par le serpent’ and is dated 1814.

Bullock auctioned off the collection at the Egyptian Hall, including the Royal Tiger, in 1819.

It was bought by William Cross that year, and was then donated to Norwich Castle Museum in 1893, but there is no record of where it was between those years.

Carl Bell, managing director of the Whitaker Group which runs the museum, said: "Rossendale Council contacted us about the National Geographic article and we were really excited to support the photographers.

“We had already researched the piece and knew it was famous and now it's been confirmed.

“With this growing interest and the uniqueness of East Lancashire, it's important for us to galvanise ourselves at Whitaker Park and Rossendale generally to get ourselves back on the map.”