Gallery danger

I READ saturday’s story that galleries were on high alert over art attacks (Mail) with interest.

i worked at the National Gallery for 12 years as a gallery assistant until last year. The NG gradually reduced staff numbers during that time, then we were privatised and now far fewer staff are concerned with security.

This is like buying the cheapest house insurance available, knowing that if disaster strikes you will be left wanting, even though the art collection is worth several billion pounds.

Watching a video of the two young women attacking Van Gogh’s sunflowers, i was staggered that no member of staff appeared to intervene, when they could have made a citizen’s arrest. The photographer who was with the women was allowed to walk out scot-free, it seems.

Last summer, Constable’s The hay Wain was covered in posters by protesters who glued themselves to the frame. The work had previously been glazed using art glass after a protester stuck a Post-it note on the canvas, but this glass was removed because of minor reflections. The curators may be experts on fine art history, but they don’t seem to appreciate security concerns.

When i asked former colleagues why no one had intervened during the Van Gogh protest, they told me staff had been instructed by the security company to only press the handheld panic button, then radio for back-up. Meanwhile, the vandals just proceeded.

All visitors are supposed to be searched on entering the sainsbury Wing main entrance and the NG now has high-resolution CCTV cameras which cost a small fortune. Yet it seems no one in the control room suspected the women wearing Just stop Oil T-shirts.

As a nation, we seem more concerned with protesters’ human rights than with the mischief they cause, which only encourages them. Perhaps the National Gallery will wake up when an unglazed major painting is ruined and cannot be restored.

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