The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London and that of the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh will be renamed the King’s Gallery during 2024. This change follows the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 and the coronation of her son Charles III in May 2023. This new name was announced by the Royal Collection Trust, an organization responsible for managing the British royal collections.
A decision that provoked reactions since the two museums – respectively created in 1962 and 2002 to exhibit works from the Royal Collection – were inaugurated by the late queen and named in her honor. Without providing any explanation for this change of heart, the spokesperson for the Royal Collection Trust now declares that “the Royal Collection being held in trust by the King for his successors and for the Nation, it is considered appropriate to rename the King’s Galleries in recognition of the new reign”. The cost of this name change in signage will be borne by the Royal Collection Trust.
The Royal Collection, enriched over the centuries by British sovereigns, is one of the largest private art collections in the world. Largely begun in the 17th century, it is spread across thirteen royal residences in the United Kingdom. The Buckingham Palace gallery notably exhibits masterpieces The Virgin and Child in a Landscape with Tobit And the Angel by Titian (1535-1540) and The Music Lesson by Vermeer (c. 1660).
