Renaissance Painting Broken in Two by Handlers

LONDON—The National Gallery is reviewing its handling procedures after art handlers damaged a Renaissance painting while removing it from an exhibition in January, reports the Guardian.

Domenico Beccafumi's Marcia, a painting on panels, apparently dropped out of a temporary frame while being removed from a wall and broke along a joint between two of the panels.

The work is one of three surviving images of women from classical mythology which experts believe Beccafumi painted around 1519 for a nobleman's bedroom. The museum owns two and borrowed a third to reunite them for the show. Such works are considered exceptionally fragile and are frequently refused permission to travel by their owners.

Marcia has been rehung in the museum's basement galleries.