A €3.8 MILLION refurbishment of some of the oldest parts of the National Gallery of Ireland in Merrion Square, Dublin, is to begin next Monday.
The entrance on Merrion Square will be closed, but the gallery will remain open. Visitors will be able to use the Millennium Wing entrance around the corner on Clare Street.
Work will start on the roof of the Dargan Wing, which the gallery says is in need of “substantial repair”. The work will also involve an upgrading of the wing’s roof lights which were last replaced in the 1940s.
While the condition of the roof does not pose any danger to the public, the planned works will improve the existing conditions, upgrade the daylight control systems in the exhibition spaces and provide better thermal performance of the roof.
Dargan Wing is the oldest part of the gallery designed by Francis Fowke and opened in 1864. Its exterior design was determined by a requirement to mirror Francis Clarendon’s Natural History Museum built in 1856 and located directly across Leinster Lawn.
The gallery has been removing art works from the wing, including masterpieces by Caravaggio, Goya, Rembrandt, Poussin, and Monet, in preparation for the refurbishment. It intends to keep some of the pieces on display elsewhere in the gallery. The roof refurbishment is scheduled to take about 12 months. Further work is planned but is subject to government funding. The most recent estimate for the cost of the full refurbishment project was €30 million.
