Royal Collection fails the awakening test as 2,500 paintings and photographs are checked in case they offend modern attitudes
- Text has been updated on dozens of display pieces to reflect the modern attitude
- The portrait of Waterloo hero Sir Thomas Picton now cites his links to the slave trade
- The Royal Collection Trust did not say how many items still require text editing
More than 2,500 paintings, graphics and photographs in the Royal Collection have been audited over the past year to ensure they do not conflict with modern notions of ‘race, slavery, wealth and disability’.
Trustees have already changed the text on dozens of pieces in royal residences, including: Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castleto bring them into line with current sensitivities.
A portrait of Sir Thomas Picton, a hero of Waterloo, is now accompanied by a text citing his links with the slave trade.
The expression ‘epileptic boy’ on a sketch by 17th-century Italian painter Domenichino has been changed to ‘boy with epilepsy’.
The Wattle Portrait, a piece from the Royal Collection, was part of the Platinum Jubilee: The Queen’s Coronation exhibition at Windsor Castle
The Royal Collection held an exhibition in Edinburgh entitled Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust. The exhibition pays tribute to the stories of seven notable Holocaust survivors through a series of portraits commissioned by The Prince of Wales
Some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s anatomical studies in A Life in Drawing have also been exhibited by the Royal Collection at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Experts have also “updated” 1,500 British Empire-themed photos from a 1921 tour of India by Edward, Prince of Wales, to avoid causing offense.
And they are continuing to examine the collection the Queen is holding on behalf of the nation to see if there are any more violations.
They also look to identify people in photographs, including men in Singapore from 1901 and Tibetan guests at the Calcutta Turf Club in 1905.
The Royal Collection Trust, the charity that maintains the collection, has not disclosed how many individual items needed updating.
But a spokesperson said: “Publicly available object records are constantly being revised to improve information about an object and/or topic.”