The National Gallery's wartime home: A museum under a mountain
About the event
Join us in the Supporters’ House Salon for an afternoon talk from Suzanne Bosman, author of ‘The National Gallery in Wartime’. It is relatively well known that the National Gallery’s paintings were stored in the slate mine at Manod, near Blaenau Ffestiniog, during the Second World War. How they ended up there, however, is another story. This talk will tell how the paintings left London on the eve of war in conditions of total secrecy for various locations in Wales and how their eventual fate could have been very different. Once Manod was adapted to receive the precious art works, not only did the slate mine provide a safe haven for the collection, but its unique configuration enabled the curators and scientists to prove that a stable and controlled environment was the optimal solution for the future care of works of art. The talk will be illustrated with both historical archive material and recent photographs from inside the Manod slate mine. Access: For House and Exhibition Members.
