Plans to create a national art gallery at National Museum Wales in Cardiff have moved a step closer with the unveiling of four art galleries on the museum's first floor.
The newly opened galleries are mainly devoted to Welsh artists from the past 300 years, such as Thomas Jones and Richard Wilson.
The £350,000 cost of the new spaces was met by the Welsh Assembly Government, the Wolfson Foundation and other private donors.
But Paul Davies, the Conservative shadow culture minister at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, voiced concerns over the move.
"The Assembly Government's feasibility study into a National Gallery for Wales is due to report over the summer," he said. "If a National Gallery is approved, then it needs to be given proper support. It cannot be shoehorned into existing buildings."
A spokesman for National Museum Wales said that a new extension to house a national gallery is still an option.
"As well as developing the display of art, we also want to be able to share more of the natural history collections with visitors to this museum," he said. "We believe that this can be best achieved, in the long term, through the development of a new north wing for the museum building.
"This large additional space could be used for the display of natural history, or for the display of art in a new national gallery for Wales. Either way, the current principle of art displayed alongside natural history would be retained."
The spokesman also confirmed the museum's plans to transfer archaeological exhibits housed at National Museum Wales to the St Fagans National History Museum over the next decade. St Fagans is located to the west of Cardiff.
Two other galleries are to open in the city centre museum this December - one displaying Victorian painting and sculpture and a second showing images of Welsh people in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The newly opened galleries are mainly devoted to Welsh artists from the past 300 years, such as Thomas Jones and Richard Wilson.
The £350,000 cost of the new spaces was met by the Welsh Assembly Government, the Wolfson Foundation and other private donors.
But Paul Davies, the Conservative shadow culture minister at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, voiced concerns over the move.
"The Assembly Government's feasibility study into a National Gallery for Wales is due to report over the summer," he said. "If a National Gallery is approved, then it needs to be given proper support. It cannot be shoehorned into existing buildings."
A spokesman for National Museum Wales said that a new extension to house a national gallery is still an option.
"As well as developing the display of art, we also want to be able to share more of the natural history collections with visitors to this museum," he said. "We believe that this can be best achieved, in the long term, through the development of a new north wing for the museum building.
"This large additional space could be used for the display of natural history, or for the display of art in a new national gallery for Wales. Either way, the current principle of art displayed alongside natural history would be retained."
The spokesman also confirmed the museum's plans to transfer archaeological exhibits housed at National Museum Wales to the St Fagans National History Museum over the next decade. St Fagans is located to the west of Cardiff.
Two other galleries are to open in the city centre museum this December - one displaying Victorian painting and sculpture and a second showing images of Welsh people in the 19th and 20th centuries.