Buckingham Palace’s Royal Picture Gallery Revives the Salon-Style Hang, Doubling the Number of Masterpieces on View
Christian Thorsberg | Smithsonian Magazine | 16th July 2026
King Charles’ art collection (the one held in trust for the nation) is stonking – Leonardo’s drawings, Vermeer, multiple Rembrandts. A re-hang happens only once every few decades, so the current one is a big deal. It’s not in the style of a white walled gallery but rather “salon” style with the collection’s “best bits” displayed in rows up the walls. Charles likes it this way, apparently. One critic, though, asks why the public are changed an entry fee, unlike “the [free] masterpieces down the road at the National Gallery”.