Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 5 : Presscuttings, June 1972 - November 1976

- ------ ------------. --- . ··-------.----------,----- ,--~- Storm and fire threaten the Art Gallery By o STAFF REPORTER THE Quet111land Art Gallery trustees ore rlfht. Th, gollary 11 • good place to keep owoy from 111 • ltorm. It also is o fire risk, despite alarm systems. And Lhe $4 mllllon col– lection. a& well u belni threaLened by bulldlni cotlap.e and !Ire, la likely to be wet by water -11- •11• Lhrouah the roof ev– ~~lnUme lhere la heavy Hardly the pJa<:e for lhe Slate to house Its art collection. The truateea this week asked the State Govern- ~~~~~ o~ 1 '/'i; c~hnedftrJ\f:Y pr1Ie~ • pa,~t\';;y·s_ n~~~J the moat valual\.Je at an estimated SI mtlllon - Picasso·• La Belle Hol– landaise, hun11 Jn the main gallery yesterday only a melre from the bluest water stain on the gatlery"a suspended cetllnr. Prized Another of the plle- i~;~lla~~lggbelf.i~~'e c?i!~ gf'o~; r~c~\nl~~:t~~~ palntlnas - yesterday wu In the alr-condl• Uoned first floor atore– room. But It \\'OUld be •lmcsl Impossible to sal'e this or any of the other palnt- l?tr,.'';,°,r:,ik:~~l~toruoom There are three exits from the SLoreroom floor. but the passages are c l u t t e re d with other paintings. gallery equip– ment and pieces of sculp– ture and pottery. The water seepage ha., caused electrlclt,y shorL C I r C u I t. and almost caused a fire In January. A blackened section of celling around a llaht filling \\'hlch !tiled with water and aborted can still be seen. The Internal switch– board has • sheet of ~lasllc tacked over It to e{te"'~!fn°ffroblem for the gallery r, the poor •late of the giant wooden roof trus,es which span the 20 metre main gal– lery. Dry rot They have dry rot. Long cracks snake out acro.ss the beams. In one W~~:rl~~u~a~e~~~[l~~~ Into a crack. In another the tru5., has come AWAY from Lhe ,,,.11 by three centimetres. A State Work! Deparl- ':'ee, ~ ~ r r.~e1~n,;~~ tru= In the building were "suspect." There wu: no Jnime– d1ate danaer or collap.se, he .aid. . But the bulldtng "'as under constant surl'etl– lance. The lalse ceiling would be removed soon for an inspection of U1e be{~: a~~tJ~:~nlen:i!)~ the Queensland Mu•eum, which was part of the r::;~ d~~l~~r'!i~et~fm,f~; problems. The trus•e• In the museum were steel. But the mu.scum had w u l e r seepage during heal'y rain. He said the projected llnlshlni: date of early 1978 ror the new Queens– !• n d Art Oallery in South Brisbane "'"" a realistic date. "It I• not Just a matter ¥[ r.u~ll~Jlm~fe: ~~~~f~f,; and will take lime for deslan and conatructlon," he said. "It ls not worth cutllnc corners for a project like this." Lease area The Works Minister tMr. Hodaes I said yester– day the State Govern– ment might lease space In a private building to display Its art collection II the existing Art Gal– lery could not be repair– ed. wo~fci d~ 0 ~1,e~e ~~ 1 i1d ~~ find suitable space rather than have the collection held In stora11e. He said It would be " t~rn1\~g~••~~c'/e~ee:r~~~ until the n•w gallery at South Brisbane opened In 1978. He 011ld engineer• from his department were ex– am In Ing the exlstlnir building to see If suitable re~a,inJg~~~sb~a'nt"dt~iat $175.000 had been spent on the old building Ol'er the last few years to re– pair the roof, Install alr– condltlon!na Rnd do res– lornt.ion work. Mr. Hodges said that about 10,000 square leeL ~ 1 ou~t~~ni~~~~ttosr,~~~ ~l~~ ff \~~; 11 ~~~~ .~~~i~~ ~v:i1~/~~~1e b~r r~l~:dco\? lectlon •• w•II. Mr. Hodges .said he did not know when work would .start on the new galler,· - there were st JII • few building acquisi– tions to be made. NEAR "LA BELLE" ROT ls so bad In some beams or the Queensland Art Gallery a hand can be Inserted four centimetres (I! Inches) Into gaps. --,--~----- -- -----..- -•