Galleries' 2,200 works in storage – so send some west, urges MSP

Published on Monday 18 May 2009 22:01

MORE of the National Galleries of Scotland's paintings should go on show in the west, a Glasgow MSP has demanded after it emerged 2,227 of them are in storage.

Glasgow Nationalist MSP Bill Kidd has put down a motion demanding a rethink on Scotland's art collection after discovering only nine pictures are on display in the west.

The motion has reopened an old Edinburgh-versus-Glasgow argument over how art is distributed across the country.

The three national galleries are based in the capital – although the National Gallery has a north-east outpost in Duff House in Aberdeenshire – and are all paid for through Scottish Government funds.

However, Glasgow has the city collection in Kelvingrove, the Burrell Collection and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow, which are supported by the city.

Mr Kidd has now argued that more of the NGS' collection should be displayed in Glasgow in an effort to help promote the Commonwealth Games and the link between Scotland's two biggest cities.

He has suggested the McLellan Galleries in Sauchiehall Street could be used as a venue.

He said: "It would be an ideal location and is centrally placed. It seems that it is a waste to have so many paintings in storage and so few of them in Glasgow and the west of Scotland generally."

He added: "Part of the problem is that the centrally funded collections are mostly based in Edinburgh. It would be a sign of goodwill to share them more."

But the former keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Duncan Thomson dismissed the complaint.

He said: "It's a bit of a red herring to talk about paintings in storage. Many of them are there for record and research and are not of display quality.

"Then you have to remember that galleries and museums like to rotate their collections, which means you have to have some in storage."

He also pointed out that there was only a limited amount of space available for displays.

Mr Thomson said: "We get this sort of story every so often and politicians always seem to think all the paintings should be on display.

"I'm sure the art gallery directors would only be too happy for them to invest in new buildings and space to display everything."

The NGS director-general John Leighton insisted that they were committed to sharing the national collection.

He said part of the reason that the total number of paintings in storage was currently so high was because of the refurbishment of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Some of this collection is expected to tour Scotland in the next year.

"This year alone, the National Galleries of Scotland will mount exhibitions in Inverness, Stromness, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, as well as Glasgow," he said.

"We also work closely with our partners Duff House, in Aberdeenshire, and Paxton House in the Borders.

"We are always keen to explore ways in which more works can be made available but, obviously, there are issues relating to resources."

He added that the total storage figure included large numbers of paintings held in reserve for study and archival purposes and that the majority of the institution's best paintings were currently on show, in Edinburgh and elsewhere.