CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA.- Tiny Italian insects have made their way across the sea with ancient masterpieces soon to be seen at an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. Quarantine officers were called in this week to eliminate exotic wood-boring insects that had survived the long journey from Rome, Florence and Bologna to Canberra for The Italians exhibition, which opens on the 28th of April. The exhibition features 100 works from Italian masters such as Michelangelo and Caravaggio. Spanning more than three centuries of Italian art, it will travel to Melbourne later this year. Fourteen paintings - most of them over 500 years old - were affected by the borers that had made their way into the frames of the priceless works. In a painstaking process, the artworks were removed from their frames, which were fumigated before the paintings were put back. One painting could not be removed from its frame. Gallery and quarantine staff worked out a solution - they constructed a special clear case around the work so it could remain in the exhibition.