A whopping €29m will be spent on the project over four years.

Now An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin have announced that the design contract for the redevelopment of Cork’s historic Crawford Art Gallery has been awarded to Grafton Architects.

The 200-year-old gallery houses a collection comprising over 3,000 works, ranging from eighteenth-century Irish and European painting and sculpture, through to contemporary video installations.

Parts of the building date back to the early eighteenth century and it needs significant enhancement to meet the evolving demands of a dynamic National Cultural Institution attracting more than 260,000 visitors per year.

“It is an extraordinary opportunity to reimagine the Crawford Art Gallery’s potential and create a vibrant new space for art and the public to meet in the heart of the city.” said the Taoiseach.

“Grafton Architects are an internationally renowned architecture firm with projects spanning from Milford to Milan, and from Lima to London, and I have no doubt that they will bring their experience and skills to bear in interpreting and developing the unique characteristics of the Crawford Art Gallery.”