THE National Gallery in London, whose priceless collection includes works by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Van Gogh, is in turmoil after a battle for control between its director and chairman.

Charles Saumarez Smith, the National’s flamboyant director, was said by gallery trustees to be the victim of “bullying and undermining” by Peter Scott, chairman of the board of trustees.

The power struggle culminated in an extraordinary two-day meeting last weekend, attended by several trustees — who include Jon Snow, the broadcaster, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, and James Fenton, former professor of poetry at Oxford University.

It is understood that Scott, who is described by some as “bluff and arrogant”, has even wondered whether Saumarez Smith is the right person to continue to run the National.

This weekend senior sources at the gallery were forced to come to the defence of Saumarez Smith, 52, by making it clear that he has a contract which takes him to the retirement age of 65.

Trustees at the meeting launched a counter-attack against Scott, a QC, by calling on him to resign as chairman. For now the outcome is unresolved.

Scott said: “Charles Saumarez Smith has my full support. I will not, however, comment on the trustees. It is a matter for them if I continue.”

Ministers at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which gave £22m of public funding to the National Gallery in 2006, have been kept informed over the past few days about the concerns of trustees and Scott’s strained relationship with Saumarez Smith.

All trustees of the National are appointed by the prime minister, but they are responsible for selecting and dismissing the chairman. The appointment of the director of the gallery is made by the trustees, but then approved by No 10.

Scott has been chairman of the National Gallery since 2000. He has had a difficult relationship with Saumarez Smith since the new director took charge in 2002.

Over the past five years, Saumarez Smith has overseen many successful exhibitions, including Raphael in 2004 and Caravaggio and Rubens in 2005-6. There was particular praise for last autumn’s Velas-quez exhibition, which attracted a record 300,000 visitors and was considered by many critics to be the best exhibition in London of 2006. However, a previous exhibition, Americans in Paris, was said to contain too many “chocolate box” paintings.

Saumarez Smith has had to put up with accusations that he is too populist and a bit of a showman. He is noted for his sharp dress sense and for his willingness to appear on arts programmes to express views not just on art, but also theatre, cinema and music.

There has been sniping, as well, some from his own senior curators, that he is not sufficiently knowledgeable about old paintings.

The National’s collection of almost 2,500 works covers paintings from the 14th century to the end of the 19th century. Saumarez Smith was initially an expert in applied art and design, although he ran the National Portrait Gallery from 1994 to 2002.

Waldemar Januszczak, art critic of The Sunday Times, has questioned Saumarez Smith’s stewardship. In a review of the current Renoir Landscapes exhibition, Januszczak, who called it “a messy show”, wrote: “This is not, after all, Neil MacGregor’s rigorous National Gallery of old, but Charles Saumarez Smith’s appearance-mad National Gallery of today.” Januszczak has previously criticised a small exhibition of Rolf Harris’s version of old master paintings.

Yet Saumarez Smith’s supporters point to his success in raising funds to keep Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks at the National. He concluded a deal in February 2004 to buy the Raphael for £22m.

Although some criticised the amount being spent on one painting — and others even questioned its provenance — Saumarez Smith was praised for making the case in public for the importance of the work.

There have been disagreements among trustees over how to spend the National’s limited resources. The trustees have split, for example, on the question of raising millions of pounds to convert a hotel owned by the gallery into a new exhibition space.

Meanwhile, Saumarez Smith is seeking an encore to his triumph with the Raphael and has plans to raise funds to buy three more old masters.

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