Gallery repairs delay puts artworks at risk

VALUABLE paintings and other works of art at one of Scotland's major public galleries are being put at risk because of problems in maintaining the fabric of the 125-year-old building.

Aberdeen City Council announced in February last year that 10 million was needed to create new storage for rare artworks. The council had had to store some items in corridors because of mounting problems in the existing storage facilities at Aberdeen Art Gallery.

An internal discussion document, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that officials warned councillors last year that problems in maintaining the fabric of the building were placing collections at risk.

The report states: "The physical problems of the art gallery building fabric have reached a stage where repair and maintenance are no longer keeping pace with deterioration - particularly poor environmental performance and water penetration - which are placing the collections at risk."

The gallery, in Schoolhill, is showing works by Monet, Matisse and Lowry, while the renowned Titian painting Diana and Actaeon and the Lewis chessmen were on temporary display last year. Its permanent collection includes works by Sir Henry Raeburn, James McBey, Picasso, William Blake, Monet, Francis Bacon, Joan Eardley and Toulouse Lautrec.

According to the report, officials recommended using 1.6m in funding from Scottish Enterprise - earmarked for Peacock Visual Arts' ill-fated plan to build a new gallery in Union Terrace Gardens - to undertake some of the "significant" repairs required to safeguard the building. They stressed that the money available would not be sufficient to address all the problems at the gallery.

Jenny Laing, culture spokeswoman for the opposition Labour group, said: "It would cause us great concern if the pieces we have in the gallery could be under threat because we haven't maintained the building.

"I would doubt the people loaning the collections are aware of it because I don't think councillors are aware of it."

But Callum McCaig, the SNP group leader and convener of the council's education, culture and sport committee, said: "We are not talking about priceless works of art sitting under leaking roofs."

But Mr McCaig added that an estimated 15m would be required to bring the building up to standard.

He said: "If the works of art were at serious risk they wouldn't still be in there. There are a lot of works that are worth a lot of money and we don't want them damaged.

"But, as the building gets older and older, there are going to be more and more issues with it.Art works have to be kept at the right temperature and the right humidity otherwise they don't keep quite so well.

"We have never hidden the fact that the gallery needs significant investment to make it fit for purpose and we are looking at spending 15m redeveloping the building.

"The gallery needs a new ventilation system and dehumidifiers. I am pretty sure that work also needs to be done to the roof."