A provocative discussion of the needs of paintings in exhibitions. Moving great paintings from one location to another may bring about physical damage, through changing temperature and relative humidity. Although the conditions in many houses, churches, where paintings have been kept for centuries may theoretically have been poor (which would appear to contradict the experts' views), it is postulated that since continuous records do not exist, in reality conditions of temperature/rh changed slowly. The solution might be to pack paintings in cases at their home conditions, then on exhibition site provide climatisation areas which would allow slow change to exhibition conditions without damaging the painting. Illustrated with photographs taken during preparation for the Genius of Venice exhibition, Royal Academy, London.