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Princess Margaret portrait on display

The 1957 painting by Pietro Annigoni, an Italian artist, depicts the young Princess in an English rose garden.

Viscount Linley included the portrait in an auction of his mother's possessions at Christie's in 2006, arguing that he needed to meet a £3 million inheritance tax bill following her death in 2002.

The Royal Family were said to be saddened at the prospect of losing the painting, a favourite of the Queen.

It was sold for £680,000, three times its original estimate. However, it later emerged that Viscount Linley was the anonymous bidder, buying back the portrait when it became apparent that the sale had far exceeded expectations by raising a total of £14 million.

He has lent it to the National Portrait Gallery, where it will be on public display until March 2009 alongside other images of Princess Margaret including photographs by Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson.

It was last exhibited at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff in October 1977...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)