Art history and heritage on the move to the RUH

Five beautiful and historic paintings at the Mineral Water Hospital are being given some TLC before they, staff and services transfer to the new RNHRD and Brownsword Therapies Centre at the RUH later this year.

In a delicate and careful operation, specialist artwork removers have lifted them from the walls ready for expert conservation and restoration over the next few months. One is the Trust's best-known and most treasured painting of Dr Oliver and Mr Pierce by the artist W.T. Hoare.

The conservation treatment involves cleaning the oil paint and canvas, repairing the frames and fitting them with a museum grade UV acrylic glazing.

The glazing will protect them from UV light and pollutants allowing them to be installed in the new RNHRD and Brownsword Therapies Centre in late September. This means patients, visitors and staff can continue to experience and enjoy the rich cultural heritage of our city's medical past.

Hetty Dupays, RUH Art and Design Manager, said: "It's always nerve-wracking to see such valuable and treasured paintings being handled, but our experts removers did a great job.

"The five paintings are hugely important historically and aesthetically. It's wonderful that they will be restored, conserved and improved and given a new home at our new therapies centre."

ENDS

Notes to Editor

• The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust provides acute treatment and care for a catchment population of around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding towns and villages in North East Somerset and Western Wiltshire. The hospital provides healthcare to the population served by four Clinical Commissioning Groups: Bath & North East Somerset CCG, Wiltshire CCG, Somerset CCG and South Gloucestershire CCG.
• The Trust has 759 beds and a comprehensive range of acute services including medicine and surgery, services for women and children, accident and emergency services, and diagnostic and clinical support services.
• In 2015 The Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust acquired the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) NHS Foundation Trust. The RNHRD treats patients from across the country offering services in rheumatology, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, cancer related fatigue and fatigue linked to other long term conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
• The RUH is changing - we have an exciting programme of redevelopment underway transforming our site and further improving the services we provide. The Trust has opened the purpose-built RNHRD and Brownsword Therapies Centre and is now working towards the new Dyson Cancer Centre. For more details visit: www.ruh.nhs.uk/fit4future

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