Two historic and valuable works of art are going unappreciated in an Angus library, according to a local councillor.
Arbroath East and Lunan councillor Bob Spink is encouraging members of the public to take the time to visit the two Pieter Brueghel the Younger pieces, on display in Arbroath Library.
The oil on plank paintings are around 400 years old and worth millions of pounds but their value and significance have slipped off the radar, according to the elected member.
Mr Spink said: “I just think that they are very famous works of art and I think no one knows that they exist. They should have a higher profile.
“They have previously been on display in Aberdeen, where there are other works by the same artist, but they have been on display in Angus for a long time and it seems as if people just walk past them.
“Brueghel is a well-recognised artist and it’s a shame the paintings aren’t getting more publicity.”
Brueghel was born in the mid-16th Century and was a Flemish painter, famed for his re-workings of his equally famous father’s paintings and his own depictions of fire and hell.
The paintings on display were gifted to the town in donations from James Rait in 1867 and James Renny in 1876.
The works, entitled St John Preaching in the Wilderness and The Adoration, are typical of Brueghel the Younger’s work in that they are adaptations of similar scenes previously painted by his father but show the Younger’s own individual twists.
Angus Council’s senior service manager for cultural services Norman Atkinson said that the true value of the paintings lie not in their monetary worth but in their cultural and artistic importance.
“They really are stars,” said Mr Atkinson.
“They are the only two ‘old masters’ we have got. Financial valuations are irrelevant in a sense. Their true value is to the people of Arbroath and Angus, that’s who they have been given to.
“For a place like Arbroath and Angus to have two, it’s fantastic.”
The paintings are on display at Arbroath library, which opens at 10am, Monday to Saturday.