Why I will advise you NOT to queue for the Leonardo exhibition

If you live in London and are even vaguely interested in art chances are you would have heard about the Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery. Said to be ‘the most complete display of Leonardo’s surviving drawings’ it’s been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. First, advance tickets sold out. Then people started queuing to buy a ticket from 7 in the morning.  And now it’s been reported that tickets are being sold for prices around £400, believe it or not. Not only that but the people prepared to pay such sums won’t be able to get in after all after the Gallery announced tickets cannot be re-sold and will be suspended.

All of this hype is partly created by the claims of the Gallery who also decided to reduce the number of people allowed in the Gallery at any one point. And of course part of this interest is stirred by the canonical place Leonardo has not just in art history but in popular culture as well.

So why am I advising you not to bother going? Don’t get me wrong – I have a long history with the National Gallery. I wrote my dissertation on one of their paintings and enjoyed the benefits of their archive. Yet today I am reminded of the reasons why so many museums in the UK face declining numbers of British if not overseas visitors and a declining number of young people going to their exhibitions. They promote an air of exclusiveness, elitism which ultimately restricts the number of people wanting to go.

And these days no other major museum in London fits that bill more closely than the NG. Let’s look at the facts: with tickets costing a whopping £16 it’s clear who can benefit from a close proximity with Leonardo.

Instead of wasting hours on a queue, don’t bother. Go to any library and read Vasari’s Lives of the Artists. Then maybe read Hans Belting’s The Invisible Masterpiece to find out the roots of Leonardo-mania.

Alternatively don’t take my word for it: after all, I haven’t even seen the exhibition because, at least, the National Gallery are consistent in their approach. The same restrictiveness they apply to the general public, they also apply to eager young journalists wanting to go.