Simone Martini, 'Christ discovered in the Temple', 1342.
© The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Board of Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside.

The National Inventory of European Painting 1200 - 1900

The National Inventory Research Project

The National Inventory Research Project was set up to tackle two key issues affecting UK holdings of continental European paintings. It aims to:

• Help reverse the recent decline in research into museum collections

• Make up-to-date information about museum collections more readily available

By making this information available online paintings in these public collections throughout the UK will become widely known and valued once again, as the great national resource they should be.

The creation of the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings is the first phase of this project, which aims eventually to bring together information on over 22,000 works of art.

Project Partners and Funding
The National Inventory Research Project is the outcome of the work of a committee of museum curators representing national and local museums across the UK and led by the National Gallery. The project is a partnership between the History of Art departments at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Glasgow and the National Gallery.

Initial funding for the project was provided by the National Gallery. Substantial grants have been received from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Getty Foundation and the Kress Foundation. Additional research has been carried out through the Neil MacGregor Scholarships and by Pilgrim Trust research grants.

The Pilgrim Trust Grants

The Neil MacGregor Scholarships

Research Project Committee Members

The Public Catalogue Foundation
The project is also working closely with the Public Catalogue Foundation, that is publishing illustrated regional catalogues of every oil painting in public ownership in the UK. For more information please visit The Public Catalogue Foundation website.

'Discoveries' Exhibition
The National Inventory Research project is celebrated in the National Gallery’s current exhibition ‘Discoveries’. This exhibition brings together a selection of paintings with some of the stories the project uncovered about them.