We are now facing by far the greatest challenge in the charity's history…
The Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures was a position created in 1625 by Charles I. The holder is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of pictures owned by the Sovereign, which includes masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian and Reynolds. It counts Anthony Blunt as one of its previous holders, who was later revealed to have been a Russian spy (season 3, episode 1 of The Crown dived into this history).
Desmond Shawe-Taylor has held the post since 2005. Now, however, he has been made redundant “for the time being”. Rufus Bird, the Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art, has also left.
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These redundancies have arrived amid The Royal Collection Trust’s expected loss of £64 million ($87 million) in income this year, reports the BBC. Sites such as Buckingham Palace, among others, have been shut to visitors due to the ramifications of Covid. The Trust’s latest exhibition, Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace, opened on December 4 only to close less than two weeks later after London’s entered into Tier 3 and then Tier 4 restrictions.
The Prince of Wales, the Trust’s chairman, wrote in the Trust’s latest annual report, "We are now facing by far the greatest challenge in the charity's history and have had to take many hard decisions in order to adjust to the new economic realities."
A statement from the Trust said: "As part of the Royal Collection Trust restructure, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures and Chief Surveyor, and Rufus Bird, Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art, will leave the organization under the Voluntary Severance Programme. The posts of Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures and Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art will for the time being, be lost and held in abeyance.”
