HINDSIGHT is a fine thing, as indeed is ambition. Put together, however, the formula is most frequently for the former to follow the latter – and for the result to be regret.

This is where the Scottish National Gallery (SNG) in Edinburgh finds itself after scaling back and delaying a £17 million revamp that, despite years of planning, it appears not to have thought through properly. To be clear: it’s not unusual for major building projects to be delayed. In this case, the completion date was to be first 2018 then 2019 and is now 2020.

Given the frequency of such setbacks in construction projects – a recurring problem of over-ambitious initial estimates – the wearied public is more inclined to raise an eyebrow than a livid objection.

However, it is for having underestimated the complexity of the work, and its concomitant costs, that the SNG finds itself, as it were, in the frame.

Put simply, as regards part of the project, extending an art gallery over a railway line was, realistically, never going to be easy in the material world.

Originally declaring itself “excited” by the project, it seems the Gallery got carried away. So much for hindsight. However, we cannot fault the SNG for ambition, driven by an urge to improve what it has to offer art lovers. By the same token, its decision to suffer embarrassment now rather than worse ignominy later, when it might be “many millions” of pounds over budget, could be seen as being prudent and wise.

Certainly, it’s a departure from the ignoble tradition in public life of keeping the fingers crossed while the costs add up. That’s when the public raises more than an eyebrow. – and rightly so Besides, there is still enough to be excited about in the revamp and, while Scottish art won’t get its own section now, it will still be fine to see it in the body of the kirk, among the international masters.

Meanwhile, the Gallery will surely have learned something from this project: if only that marrying ambition to reality is a fine art indeed.