LOANS IN LOCKDOWN What happens when an artwork on loan is temporarily stranded in lockdown?

Loans in Lockdown

What happens when an artwork on loan is temporarily stranded in lockdown? By Jane Albert.

The closure of Australia’s borders due to the outbreak of COVID-19 not only had immediate wide-ranging consequences for the public; paintings on loan to and from international and domestic institutions were also placed into lockdown.

For the National Gallery, which had to close the Canberra season of the Matisse & Picasso exhibition several weeks early due to the pandemic, this meant over 60 works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso have remained in Canberra, painstakingly packed away long after they were due to be returned.

As this was an unprecedented situation, the National Gallery’s carefully complied risk management framework was implemented, and staff went to extraordinary lengths to adapt the usual packing and de-installation process to accommodate travel bans and include social distancing measures where possible.

According to Natalie Beattie, Head of Registration, each step is meticulously followed when the National Gallery is borrowing, installing, deinstalling and returning artworks; and similarly, when it is lending works from our collection. “We make sure our works of art are handled as safely as possible all the way through the chain of freighting, unpacking, condition checking and installation,” she says.

For Matisse & Picasso, 61 paintings and sculptures were loaned from other galleries including the Musée Picasso in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Tate in London; while others were borrowed from Australian galleries such as the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

When loaning works of a certain value, the lending institutions would normally send at least one courier to supervise the deinstallation, packaging and crating, handling and condition report, after which the works would be personally accompanied in passenger planes or freighters. Consignments are often split up if a number of valuable works are travelling together.

However due to the pandemic travel restrictions, not only were couriers unable to fly into Australia but there was uncertainty around airlines when the exhibition was being packed up. “We do not like uncertainty in our game, particularly when dealing with artworks of this calibre,” says Natalie.

Instead, the National Gallery sought permission to pack up the works without a lender representative present. Given their long-established relationships this was agreed, albeit with some provisions.

“The Museu de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in Brazil was particularly concerned about the packing of their works because they

need special tools and handling so we suggested we could try Skyping in real time, so we had a laptop on the floor to show our colleagues what was happening.” The Musée Picasso requested the pack up be filmed, given their works are considered national treasures.

While it was not always possible to observe the 1.5m social distancing rules given deinstalling requires the paintings to be held at each corner, the team all wore masks and their customary gloves. “We had a minimal number of people and were doing it with full personal protection and regular sanitation cleansing,” Natalie says.

Of course the National Gallery also has several works from its collection stranded in lockdown while on loan: including Francis Bacon’s Triptych 1970, which remains at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston where it travelled after being exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris; and Claude Monet’s Meules, milieu du jour [Haystacks, midday] 1890, which is at the Museum Barberini near Berlin where it will remain until it can safely come home to Canberra.

“We find out about the borrowing venue when we receive the loan request, whether they have the right climate control, security, the right level of staff expertise so when a situation like COVID-19 happens and suddenly the program is thrown into disarray we’re already at a place that has a really good practice. We’re not going to put anything in danger” says Natalie.

Given the extraordinary value of the Matisse & Picasso artworks, the insurance premiums have now been extended following detailed discussions with the lending institutions and the Department

of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. “We immediately investigated what the lenders wanted to do and liaised with Government to see whether we could extend the static insurance period, because it’s onsite here for longer than anticipated,” Natalie says. “Some of them decided they’d keep to their own policies, at their own cost, so that was very special.”

The major retrospective of late 19th-century Australian artist Hugh Ramsay involved a large number of loans from private lenders and institutions who were unable to receive the paintings back, so they have also been safely crated and stored. Works from the collection that have been loaned domestically have been similarly caught up in lockdown, enjoying an extended holiday interstate as the borders closed. Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series 1946–47 is in the middle of a regional tour, on loan at the Cairns Regional Gallery while the National Gallery’s other Monet, Nymphéas [Waterlilies] c1914–17, remains at the Queensland Art Gallery until it can come home to Canberra.

“It’s another favourite but it’s being kept nice and safe,” assures Natalie.

Page 34 and 35: Gallery staff install works for the Matisse & Picasso exhibition ahead of its opening last December. Page 34: Pablo Picasso, Woman from Arles (Lee Miller) [L’Arlésienne (Lee Miller)] 1937, oil on canvas, private international collection. *©Succession Picasso. Page 35: Henri Matisse, Reclining nude I (Aurora) [Nu couché I (Aurore)] 1907, cast c# 1912, bronze, Room of Contemporary Art Fund, 1945, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. *© Succession Matisse; Pablo Picasso, Large nude on a red chair [Grand nu au fauteuil rouge] 1929, oil on canvas, Musée Picasso, Paris. *Succession Picasso. Above: Claude Monet, Meules, milieu du jour [Haystacks, midday] 1890, oil on canvas, purchased 1979, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Opposite: Sidney Nolan, The defence of Aaron Sherritt 1946, enamel paint on composition board, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Sunday Reed 1977 © National Gallery of Australia