Man held over damage to masterpiece

A MAN accused of damaging a valuable Gainsborough masterpiece with a screwdriver at the National Gallery was remanded in custody yesterday.

Keith Gregory, 63, allegedly made two long scratches to the paintwork of The Morning Walk on Saturday afternoon.

Gregory appeared at Westminster magistrates court in London charged with criminal damage.

Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot adjourned the case until Thursday after Gregory refused representation.

The Morning Walk depicts a young couple enjoying a stroll in the countryside and is considered one of Gainsborough’s great masterpieces. Painted in 1785, it has been owned by the National Gallery for more than 60 years, having been bought for £30,000 in 1954. It was featured in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall, where the painting can be seen over actor Daniel Craig’s shoulder in a scene portraying a clandestine meeting between Bond and Q, played by Ben Whishaw.

In 2011, Gainsborough’s Portrait of Miss Read, Later Mrs William Villebois sold for £6.5million at Christie’s in London, the highest price paid for a work by the British artist.

The damaged 18th-century masterpiece is a popular attraction in the permanent British Paintings exhibition. It depicts an “elegant young couple”, William Hallett and Elizabeth Stephen, strolling through a woodland landscape. A National Gallery website page devoted to the work said the couple were both aged 21 and “due to be married in the summer of 1785, shortly after the painting was completed”.

Mark Bills, director of Gainsborough’s House, the museum in the artist’s former home in Sudbury, Suffolk, described the attack as “quite shocking”. He said: “It’s one of his great masterpieces – he was absolutely at the height of his powers.

“When you think of the elegant portraits of the Georgian period, that’s the one that comes to mind.” With regard to the attack, he said: “You probably won’t see a difference ... I’m relieved from what I’ve read it hasn’t caused permanent damage.”