The £4m gallery, due to open in early 2017, is earmarked for the old Barclays Bank building in Bishop Auckland’s Market Place. The project is the brainchild of investment manager and art lover Jonathan Ruffer, who in 2012 bought Auckland Castle.
It is hoped to attract loans from major international public and private collections such as the Museo del Prado in Madrid, which holds the biggest collection of paintings by some of Spain’s greatest artists including Zurbarán, El Greco, Goya, Ribera and Velázquez.
The Prado’s deputy director, Gabriele Finaldi, was in County Durham last week taking part in a Spanish art symposium when he took time out to view the site of the proposed gallery.
A planning application to convert the former Barclays Bank building is expected to be submitted to Durham County Council at the end of November. The proposal also includes the founding of a new art research institute.
The gallery is part of a wider, long-term aspiration shared by Auckland Castle, The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle, and Durham University to establish the county as a key international academic and tourist destination focused around the area’s rich concentration of Spanish art. Auckland Castle, Durham University, The Bowes Museum and Durham Cathedral between them house the biggest pool of Golden Age Spanish art outside London.
Mr Ruffer has made no secret of the fact he wants developments at Auckland Castle to regenerate the town of Bishop Auckland following the closure of the coal mines and subsequent industrial decline. The art gallery is the latest in a line of high profile developments announced for Auckland Castle. These include a £17m project, backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to build a new museum extension at the castle to house a unique and internationally important exhibition charting 5,000 years of faith in the British Isles. This will also see the renovation of the castle and its state rooms – home for 900 years to the Bishops of Durham.
Planning applications for all the schemes are currently being prepared and will be submitted in the coming weeks.
David Ronn, chief executive of the Auckland Castle Trust, said: “In some cases these plans have been in the making for over a year, but things are now coming together.
“The new Spanish art gallery is a major piece in the jigsaw.
“People are often surprised that County Durham is home to such significant collections of Spanish art.
“It is remarkable that for so long County Durham has had such an outstanding collection of Spanish art that hasn’t been recognised.
“Our challenge is to make Spanish art, particularly that from the Golden Age, open and accessible to all.”