Museums everywhere are unveiling their big fall exhibitions this month, but sadly, one major show that would have been a jewel of the season is not opening. In mid-August, just five weeks before A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750 was due to open on 26 September, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC cancelled it.

The museum cited “multiple factors related to the worsening COVID-19 crisis,” including “uncertainties” about shipping its many masterpieces from Europe, safety concerns for the art handlers who must work closely to take down these works abroad and others who would reinstall them here, and the fear that the National Gallery may again be subject to a closure, which might change the schedule and perhaps prevent return shipments to Rome, where the exhibition is expected to open in March.