Nazi bombs, gentlemen thieves, enigmatic art lovers and a guard dog called Rex – just a handful of the strange tales associated with this historical institution
Founded in 1824, the National Gallery houses some 2,300 paintings and contains one of the finest art collections in the world. Since first opening its doors, the gallery has become one of London’s top tourist attractions, receiving 3 million visitors in 2023 alone, while the groundbreaking research and conservation carried out under its roof has resulted in many important contributions to the arts. Yet, with 200 years of history, the gallery also has a number of bizarre stories and mysterious happenings connected to the many paintings contained within. To celebrate the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary, we recently took a trip into their archives to discover some of the secrets and mysteries of this national institution’s long history.
THE FOUNDING OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION
In April 1824, the art collection of John Julius Angerstein was placed on sale. The collector had died the previous year and had amassed works by William Hogarth, Rubens, Rembrandt and Raphael. The British Government, for once flush with cash thanks to Austria’s repayment of a war loan, gave £57,000 for a choice selection of 38 works. The intention was that this small group would form the basis of a national collection, an idea that some artists had been eagerly championing.
“A vociferous campaigner for a public gallery was landscape painter and collector George Beaumont,” explains Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, the senior research curator at the National Gallery. “He promised a collection if Angerstein’s pictures were purchased and gave 16 works, becoming the gallery’s first donor.” In 1831, the gallery received the first of many bequests throughout its history, receiving 35 paintings from the Revd William Holwell Carr. Throughout the decades the gallery continued to grow, moving to its permanent home in 1838.
THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME
One oddity hidden among the collections of the gallery is a framed strip of canvas. Those unfamiliar with this unassuming artefact’s bizarre history might be forgiven for not giving it a second glance. Yet this item is evidence of perhaps the most notorious theft committed by Adam Worth, a 19th-century master criminal said to have inspired Sherlock Holmes’s archnemesis, Professor Moriarty. Worth’s escapades were legendary, stealing anywhere between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000, he (according to a 1904 obituary) “ruled the shrewdest criminals and planned deeds for them with a craft that bade defiance to the best detective talent in the world.”
In 1876, Worth’s criminal instincts were piqued when the previously thought-l
