Professor Dame Sue Black painting revealed at gallery

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is to reopen later this week with a Ken Currie work depicting forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black.

Arriving at the National Galleries of Scotland on a long-term loan directly from the artist, the large portrait is titled Unknown Man and shows Prof Black in surgical robes standing behind the covered remains of a body.

Prof Black reacted with tears when she first saw Mr Currie’s work at the gallery, telling the artist how she loved the “really powerful” portrait.

The artist said: “I am delighted to be able to loan the painting.

"This will make it more accessible to a wider public and hopefully draw attention to the astonishing work that Sue Black has undertaken in her long career as an anatomist and forensic anthropologist throughout the world.”

Prof Black is one of the world’s leading forensic scientists and her work has been crucial to a number of high-profile criminal cases, including the conviction of Scotland’s largest paedophile ring in 2009.