"Lowering ' The Last Supper ' through the roof of the National Gallery"

I was describing to a friend of a friend our visit to the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery in London. In the one room all Da Vinci’s preparatory drawings for “The Last Supper” were exhibited and I was telling him about this enormous painting, measuring 450 x 870 centimetres, that was actually painted on the end wall of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan.

He was quite taken with the whole thing. Then, as if out of the blue, he suddenly asked me if the painting had also been exhibited in the room with all the drawings. I stopped talking, gave him a quizzical look and waited for him to laugh. He didn’t and I knew he had no idea about what he’d said.

At that moment I was overcome by a vision of monks cutting the monastery’s wall out, transporting it to London and lowering it through a space created in the roof of the National Gallery. I began to chuckle. He said. “What!” I said, “No, nothing” and changed the subject.

Just before we parted, he gave me a troubled look, “By the way,”  he said, “how the hell did they get that painting in to the National Gallery?”  ”Through the roof,” I said. “What! Really?” He shook his head, “Bloody genius,” he muttered, and walked away.

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