Trailer- 200 Years of the National Gallery - Full Documentary Series - YouTube

How is a national collection of art created and how did the National Gallery come to be founded? We are telling the history of 200 years of the National Gallery to celebrate our birthday. Learn the story of how we were founded and moved to our present-day building in Trafalgar Square. How the collection was kept safe in a quarry during the Second World War and about our long-standing relationships with contemporary artists and the ever-changing nature of the art market over the past two centuries. We dive into key works in our collection of Western European art and how these paintings came to us as gifts, requests, purchases and even acquisitions at auctions under gunfire. Most of all, you will meet the generations of directors and staff who have shaped the story of our collection for the good of the nation.