Catalogue

1. No. 1What a crate tells youA travelling painting spends more of its life in a box than most visitors would guess. The box is built for that one picture.
2. No. 2Reading the labelThe small card beside a painting holds more than a title. Most of what it says is about where the picture has been.
3. No. 3Provenance, one owner at a timeA painting's ownership history is built from sale catalogues, letters and labels on the back of the frame. The gaps matter as much as the names.
4. No. 4The conservator's benchRestoration on television looks dramatic. At the bench it is mostly patience, swabs and very good light.
5. No. 5A gallery on a Tuesday morningMuseums are different places when they are nearly empty. A weekday morning is the best time to find that out.
6. No. 6When the paintings went undergroundIn 1939 the great museums of Europe emptied their walls in days. Some of their pictures spent the war inside a mountain.