The gallery that first commissioned a work of art destroyed by water at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art has expressed its heartbreak over its fate.
The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh first commissioned Nathan Coley's Lamp of Sacrifice, a work made from 286 cardboard scale models of churches and other places of worship in Edinburgh.
It was damaged beyond repair after being inundated with water at the gallery (GoMA) in January and now Coley, a Turner Prize nominated artist based in Glasgow, is to completely remake the work.
The National Galleries of Scotland, which own the work, bought the piece with funds from the Cecil and Mary Gibson Bequest for £20,000 in 2004.
The work had been on show in Glasgow as part of the nationwide show of Scottish contemporary art, Generation.
Fiona Bradley, director of The Fruitmarket Gallery, said: "We are deeply saddened by the damage to Nathan Coley's Lamp of Sacrifice.
"We were very proud to commission the work, and were delighted when it was acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland, who have looked after it extremely well in the time it has been in their care.
"We were also pleased that it was lent to Glasgow Life: the piece was extremely popular with our audience, and it was wonderful that it could be brought to a new audience in the context of Generation."
She added: "The damage is heartbreaking, and our thoughts are with the artist.
"The labour of making the work is an explicit part of its meaning (the sacrifice of the title), so its re-making is particularly poignant.
"It is comforting to know, though, that the work will be remade, and will continue to exist as an an important part of recent Scottish art history, and a delight to future audiences."
Glasgow Life, which runs the gallery, has revealed a humidification plant "contributed to the damage" to the art work, and issued a public apology.
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