Major museums around the world keep some of the greatest works of art in history away from the public eye.

The numbers here are quite incredible! At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, for example 24 of the 1221 works by Pablo Picasso can’t be viewed by visitors. Ed Ruscha, the conceptual artist from California, has only 1 piece being displayed. And you can only see 9 of Surrealist Joan Mirós’ 156 works. Although the walls of MoMa, the Louvre, and the Tate may look perfectly well-hung, the vast majority of art belonging to the top institutions in the world, and, in may countries, tax-paying citizens, is kept hidden away, in meticulously organised storage facilities that are kept darkened and under strict temperature control.

Overall Percentages Are Even More Dramatic
That Tate shows only 20% of its permanent collection, the Louvre only 8%, and the Guggenheim a rather astonishingly low 3%. The Berlinische Galerie shows only 2% of its holdings, including around 6 000 sculptures and paintings, 15 000 prints, and 80 000 photographs. Thomas Köhler, the Berlinische Galerie Director, explains that there simply isn’t enough space to show any more. The museum has only 1 200 sq m in which to display works that have been acquired over decades of donations and purchases.

Perhaps the internet can help, since online domains obviously do not suffer from the same limitations in size that land-based locations do? While many brick-and-mortar casinos, for example, are able to provide a fair amount of Reel machines, this is small change when compared to the hundreds and hundreds of online pokies Australia has to offer at even the smallest online gambling site. Maybe the only way we’ll ever get to see these pieces is if they start becoming available to view in virtual reality settings.

Fashion Also Plays a Part
The spatial deficits museums and galleries have to contend with is only 1 of the reasons many works ever see the light of day. Another is fashion, since certain holdings no longer fit in with their institutions’ curatorial missions. Less famous works by the best-known artists may also suffer, since it’s usually their most famous creations hanging on the walls.

Works that museums receive as a result of the acquisitions of estates may languish in crates for years as they wait to be sorted, explains Köhler, and there are pieces that have to be kept under wraps because of how delicate they are, or because they’ve sustained damage. Different institutions will have their own rotation and storage policies in place, and these will depend on the nature and scope of a collection.

Each Museum Has Its Own System
Although the National Gallery of London uses a Double Hang system, increasing the amount of permanent works on view, Vienna’s Albertina owns over a million prints from the Old Masters, many of which are hundreds of years old, and incredibly sensitive. The percentage of these on view is thus very small, even though they keep most of their holdings onsite. Other museums store their caches in secret warehouses located offsite.