THE National Galleries of Scotland director-general has told MSPs that years of “systemic underfunding” mean that closures cannot be ruled out.

Anne Layden delivered her stark message to Holyrood’s culture committee eight months after the arts body warned that it could be “forced to make seismic changes, such as closing one of our buildings,” in the near future.

National Galleries of Scotland is responsible for over 120,000 works of art across several galleries, including the National, Portrait, Modern One and Modern Two.

Ms Layden told MSPs that her organisation continued to grapple with rising staffing costs and an “ageing estate,” with a maintenance backlog exceeding £20 million, up £2.5m since the first warning was issued in January.

“The last thing we would want to do would be to have any closures, but I honestly can’t rule that out, particularly without knowing what the budget would be for next year,” she said.

“We do have very valid concerns for ongoing years in terms of what we will be able to do.”

Arguing that National Galleries of Scotland had suffered from “systemic underfunding over many years,” she pointed out that, “like many cultural bodies, we are working in these amazing buildings, many that date from the 19th century,” that now present a catalogue of maintenance headaches “from gas boiler heating to needing electrical rewiring and repair.”

Ms Layden said: “There is a long list. We need about £4m a year in terms of tackling that backlog. Last year, we received £1.9m.”

Last year’s £1.75m budget boost from the Scottish government did little to make a dent in that challenge, she said, telling MSPs: “The cost of the 35-hour working week, National Insurance [and] pay awards effectively totalled £1.75m additional costs. So it’s gone.”

Despite “self-generated income and sponsorship and fundraising,” Ms Layden said financial constraints had made staging the kinds of major international exhibitions once associated with the galleries “very difficult to do.”

Urging the committee to back funding reform, the director-general called for multi-year settlements for “more security and certainty” and for National Galleries of Scotland to be granted the same borrowing powers afforded to its counterparts in England to deal with “unexpected occurrences.”