Here's the story of that Lightning.
http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/survivorspics2.html Apparently one of only two surviving examples of an F.2A in the UK. The other one is in the Museum of Flight at East Fortune.
That is not a work of art, it is an classic aircraft that has been desecrated by vandals. No aircraft deserves to ends it's life being painted on and vandalised in a field by chavs whether there is one left or one hundred.
It's simply a lump of metal that somehow avoided the scrapman's torch. Might have been better if it hadn't. Sorry, I'm as keen on aircraft preservation as anybody (probably more so than most) but I have to agree with Heretic on this one.
PS. I wouldn't hold out too much hope of it ever being restored by the new owner.