Taking the crown jewels to the kingdom
AST Friday, 12 much-loved paintings from the National Gallery in London appeared on public display in museums across the country, from Edinburgh to Aberystwyth and from Bristol to Brighton. The paintings, which are on loan for different periods of between two and four months, are being described as ‘national treasures’. That is not, which is now at the Ashmolean, Oxford, and Sandro Botticelli’s , which is at the Fitzwilliam Cambridge, have never been lent before, partly for reasons of fragility. Others have travelled for international exhibitions, a clear mark of their importance. Indeed, as part of this initiative, one painting has even prompted an international loan: Caravaggio’s , has been reunited in the Ulster Museum, Belfast, with its counterpart, , from the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
