Titian on tour: Masterpiece hits road

THE £50 million, 450-year-old Titian masterpiece Diana and Actaeon is to set off on a three-city, three-month tour of Scotland in May, the National Galleries of Scotland announced yesterday.

• John Leighton of the National Galleries of Scotland and Dr Nicholas Penny, of the National Gallery admire the painting. Picture: Neil Hanna

For about half a century, the painting hung virtually undisturbed in the National Gallery of Scotland (NGS) in Edinburgh, on loan from the Duke of Sutherland's family.

But since its joint purchase by the NGS and the National Gallery in London a year ago, a road trip has been in the works – so it can be seen by as many as possible of the people who helped foot the bill.

The painting is expected to travel the country in a climate-controlled truck, sealed in a specially designed crate.

Travelling to the Aberdeen Art Gallery in late May, to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow for July and to the reopened McManus Galleries in Dundee for August, Diana and Actaeon will be closely examined for any change or damage at every stop.

Officials will not discuss security for a work said to have an open market value of closer to 150m. But high-value works of art are regularly moved through Scotland, they say, such as the classic Robert Burns portrait, currently part of a touring Homecoming exhibition.

A condition of its joint purchase last year by the NGS in Edinburgh and the National Gallery in London, backed with 12.5m in Scottish Government money and lottery funds, was that it should be more widely seen.

The painting moves between London, where it is currently on show, and Edinburgh about every eight months as part of the deal.

After the Scottish tour, which ends in Edinburgh, it will go on the road in England.

"It was made quite rightly very clear when we acquired the picture, by funding bodies, that they expected us to tour the picture round the UK," said the National Gallery of Scotland director, Michael Clarke. "We readily agreed to this. Lots of very valuable paintings more around, they are very securely framed and backed, and obviously this is a supreme masterpiece, very carefully glazed at the front.

"All possible measures are taken. In the 17th century they used to move in ox carts. Conditions have improved since then."

Diana and Actaeon had been on loan from the Sutherland family since 1945. They had not wanted it moved from the gallery.

After a tour of English venues, it is thought that the painting will settle into a routine of moving between Edinburgh and London every few years.

The gallery has until 2012 to buy the second Sutherland Titian, Diana and Callisto, for a similar amount. Fundraising efforts are under way behind the scenes.

The NGS is picking up the 20,000 bill for the Scottish tour. Insurance is covered by the UK Government's indemnity scheme, avoiding high commercial rates.

The publicity surrounding the acquisition is expected to pull big audiences. "It is one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the world," said Mr Clarke.