Securing a national treasure
RAYMOND Keaveney steps down this week as director of the National Gallery of Ireland. Keaveney joined the gallery as curator in 1979. He was appointed assistant director in 1981 and director in 1988. Conditions at the gallery were, he says, “third world” until he began refurbishing the Beit wing. Later, he oversaw the construction of the Millennium wing, which opens onto Clare St, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city. The development faced planning difficulties, and its budget ran into tens of millions of euro, but it was completed by 2002. Keaveney has since been engaged in the gallery’s master development programme, which will involve the restoration of the Dargan and Milltown wings and the construction of a new extension. The development, which has a budget of €30m, will be taken up by his successor, Sean Rainbird.
Preserving and extending the National Gallery has been one aspect of Keaveney’s directorship. Conserving the works in its collection has been another. He has also extended the collection by over 2,000 works, and he is particularly proud of the gallery’s international touring exhibitions, the most recent of which was Gabriel Metsu: Rediscovered Master of the Dutch Golden Age, which went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the National Gallery of Art, in Washington in 2011.
