The brawl is believed to have occurred before 2am yesterday and saw one of the gallery's front windows smashed and its art display damaged.

It is the second time the gallery's front windows have been smashed during brawls, with another also recently broken.

Art gallery staff and police spent time yesterday viewing the closed-circuit TV footage captured outside the gallery.

Glass shards were scattered along the footpath around the gallery and window, which had been boarded up by police shortly after the incident.

But gallery director Gordon Morrison believed the CCTV cameras were not doing anything to secure Ballarat's "most important treasure".

There are 12 CCTV cameras installed in Ballarat's CBD, as part of a $350,000 initiative to reduce crime and assault figures.

The system began operating in Lydiard St between Sturt and Mair streets and in Police Lane, earlier this month.

Mr Morrison he said the gallery had CCTV cameras installed in front of the building long before the others were installed.

But he believed the behaviour and attitudes of people in the community were not changing.

"There's been no change in the attitude of people who are here at night; they have a complete disregard for their behaviour and damage they cause," Mr Morrison said.

"There's millions of dollars of artwork here and it just questions the security."

Gallery staff estimated the damage at several thousand dollars, along with the loss of business yesterday with part of the gallery closed.