Long queues before Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine leaves Berlin

Oct 28, 2011, 17:23 GMT

Berlin - Visiters were waiting in the wee hours of the morning Friday in Berlin to see Lady with an Ermine, one of the few portraits by Leonardo da Vinci, on the fourth-to-last day before the Polish-owned painting is moved to London.

People were outside the city's Bode Museum at 5 am, five hours before the doors opened, for good reason. Lines have been so long that before opening time staff advised those at the back of the queue to give up and go home, as they had no chance of buying the 300 available tickets, a spokeswoman said.

Only 3,000 visitors allowed in daily to see the work, and the other 2,700 tickets were pre-booked. Monday is the last day of the showing.

The painting, to be shown next at the National Gallery in London, is the highlight of the Bode's Renaissance Faces show.

It depicts Cecilia Gallerani, the 17-year-old mistress of Lodovico Sforza, duke of Milan, holding an ermine or weasel.

The masterpiece dated 1489/90 is on loan from Poland where it is regarded as one of the country's greatest treasures. It is part of the permanent collection at the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow.

Da Vinci (1452-1519) produced only a handful of portraits during his career, among them the enigmatic Mona Lisa.

Some art historians regard Lady with an Ermine as the world's first allegorical portrait, with the ermine symbolizing purity and honour.

The rest of the show, which features works by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Bellini, Pisanello and others, continues until November 20 and then moves to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After initially refusing, Poland set strict conditions in April on the loan of the 55 x 40 centimetre painting.

After its display in London's National Gallery, the painting is to be returned to Poland where it is to remain for at least a decade before being moved again.