Britain's royal family has been collecting art for 500 years or so. They've got an awful lot of it – 7,000 paintings alone, plus tens of thousands of watercolours, drawings and prints. Technically, it's held "in trust" for the nation. But if you want to go and see it – and it'll only be a fraction of it – you'll have to pay.
Towards the end of the 18th century, there were moves to assemble an art collection for the people. Other countries had national collections, but Britain had nothing. Several collections were up for sale, including that of the late Sir Robert Walpole. But the money couldn't or wouldn't be found.
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