A limited number of visitors will be able see a handful of paintings from the Portrait Gallery of Canada this fall, as the homeless gallery conducts Sunday tours of its vault near Ottawa.

The gallery had a plan to convert the former American Embassy in Ottawa into an exhibition gallery, but it was nixed by the federal Conservative government. A rumour that it might find a home in Calgary for its collection of more than one million images also has been put to rest.

Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King of Generethgarich, was painted in oil by John Verelst around 1710.
(Library and Archives Canada)

The portrait gallery has yet to have an exhibition in Canada more than six years after being formed by Jean Chrétien's Liberal government.

The collection sits in a huge climate-controlled storage facility at the Gatineau Preservation Centre in Gatineau, Que.

Starting Sept. 16 and continuing every Sunday until Nov. 4, the gallery, run by Library and Archives Canada, will admit two tours to one of its vaults — a total of only 30 visitors a day.

The free guided tours will give visitors an opportunity to view the Four Indian Kings, four portraits of chiefs from the 18th century, recently displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The vault also is home to Yousuf Karsh's famous black and white portrait of former British prime minister Winston Churchill and Andy Warhol's portrait of Wayne Gretzky.

The Conservative government has floated the idea that the gallery might remain homeless while mounting extensive travelling tours that would ensure Canadians could see the collections. No money has yet been provided for that idea.