Kate Middleton visits the National Portrait Gallery in London on Feb. 4, 2025. Victoria Jones/Shutterstock "She sat with the children on the coach and chatted with them," Ascough adds.

Lord Sainsbury didn't like the design of the wing his family funded. He paid for it though, and slipped a 1990 letter into a pillar during construction. Construction workers found it 33 years later.

Get our newsletter! Throughout the National Gallery’s 200-year history, the London museum’s collection has served as both a cultural touchstone and a flashpoint for political swirl.