With tax bills looming for the self-employed, this may not be the best time of year for an exhibition brought to us, even indirectly, by the Inland Revenue. The tax exemption scheme for art, which has been in place since 1896, was set up to discourage the sale of important works to overseas buyers. Under certain conditions, such as an undertaking to allow the public some access, inheritance tax relating to the work will be waived.
There are now 58,000 works under the scheme; this exhibition is a selection made by Sotheby's of those in Scotland, Northumbria and Cumbria.
Though the quality of work is much more even here, there is a touch of the Antiques Roadshow or an auction preview to the proceedings. Paintings dominate, but there are also cases full of ceramics and jewellery, plus some rather grand furniture.
Gaudy peacock ornaments jostle with a pair of spectacles worn by Sir Walter Scott; an Italian carriage seat competes for our attention with a travelling backgammon set used by Mary Queen of Scots. With nothing linking them together except their tax status, these various objects may have historical importance but they muddle and clutter the exhibition.
The paintings are of a different calibre, and the chance to see works by Henry Raeburn, John Lavery and Allan Ramsay not normally on public view does give the exhibition a compelling core. The show is organised chronologically, and there is the now familiar shock in any survey of Scottish art when you turn into the 20th-century room and the work of the Colourists jumps out.
Highlights in this show include two paintings by Caddell - Nude Reflected in a Mirror, a languidly lovely soft smudge of composition, and, in sharp contrast, the almost brash intensity of The Rose.
But it's hard to switch off from the fiscal raison d'etre to this impressively swanky selection. In a city struggling to maintain its public galleries, including the rather dog-eared Burrell and sadly dwindling exhibition programme after giddy, misguided spending a decade ago, it's tough to marvel at these privately owned treasures.
Art and money: they are friends of long standing, of course. But rarely has an exhibition made that point so emphatically.
* Until February 4. Details: 0141-287 2550.
