£10m needed to store Aberdeen's collection of art treasures

A CITY council needs £10 million to create a new storage facility for rare artworks, after being forced to store some of the artefacts in corridors.

Councillors in Aberdeen will tomorrow be urged to develop plans for a new building to store the city's hidden treasures, because of mounting problems in the existing storage facilities.

A report, due to presented to members of the education, culture and sport committee, has revealed that some artefacts are being kept in corridors in one museum and art gallery store because of the lack of space. And, at Aberdeen Art Gallery, the stores suffer from inadequate environmental controls.

The report reveals: "A boiler capable of delivering individually tailored heating to different areas has been installed, but the controls have not, with the result that the costume store can be too hot in winter and too damp and cold in summer, when the main heating is turned off."

Under the current storage arrangements, the council's collections are being housed at various locations scattered across the city, including storage facilities in Frederick Street and Kittybrewster.

Neil Bruce, the manager for culture and leisure services, states in his report: "Both the Frederick Street and Kittybrewster sites are close to total capacity. Objects are stored in corridors, which is not best practice. Although safe working procedures are in place to mitigate risks, the continued use of storage in corridors restricts our ability to use handling gear and may lead to accidental damage."

He adds: "The collections of Aberdeen Art Gallery and museums are stored in a number of locations, none of which was purpose-built. In 1983, the department acquired space at the Kittybrewster depot, which was adapted with the addition of site-specific racking and shelving units. Air-conditioning and monitoring equipment was also installed; however, this now requires significant upgrading and replacing."

At Frederick Street, museum and art gallery staff have been forced to reuse shelving and cupboards discarded from other sites to store various exhibits.

Mr Bruce continues: "The storage spaces at the art gallery are also filled to capacity, and in the upper storage spaces contained within the Murray Room there is concern about the load-bearing, which means we are unable to add new material to the storage rooms."

The cost is estimated at 10m, but it is expected the redevelopment scheme would be eligible for support from the Heritage Fund Lottery, as well as contributions from other grant-making bodies.

UNDER WRAPS

ITEMS currently in storage include Habitat, a bronze sculpture by Gavin Turk bought for 40,000 in 2004 with cash from art funds, and Sara Walking, Sparkly Top and Jeans, by Julian Opie, worth 16,200.

The treasures include an unrivalled collection of the works of artist James McBey and the largest UK collection of outfits by cult fashion designer Bill Gibb.

Aberdeen Art Gallery houses one of the most important art collections in the country, ranging from 18th-century portraits by Raeburn, Hogarth and Reynolds, to the 20th-century artists Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Francis Bacon.