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Lost Portrait of Robert Burns Goes on Display After 220 Years

The portrait, commissioned in 1803 and missing for 220 years, was authenticated by experts and is displayed before traveling to Burns's birthplace museum.

  • On January 22, the long-lost Sir Henry Raeburn portrait of Robert Burns found during a Surrey house clearance last year went on display at National Galleries Scotland.
  • Commissioned in 1803 for engraving, the portrait was created by Sir Henry Raeburn, based on Alexander Nasmyth’s 1787 painting and vanished for more than 200 years before rediscovery.
  • Experts cleaned and examined the canvas, confirming the Raeburn attribution endorsed by James Holloway, Dr Duncan Thomson, Helen Smailes, Lesley Stevenson, and Dr Bendor Grosvenor.
  • The rediscovery returns a major work to Scotland’s national art collection and it will move to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway, South Ayrshire, from July 21.
  • Scholars said the find resolves decades of mystery and debate about the portrait’s fate, and for the first time Raeburn’s and Nasmyth’s portraits will hang side-by-side at the National Galleries on the Mound, Edinburgh.
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Evening StandardEvening Standard
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Long-lost portrait of Scotland’s national bard on public display for first time

The painting, which fetched tens of thousands of pounds at auction last year, was lost for more than 200 years.

·London, United Kingdom
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The National broke the news in Glasgow, United Kingdom on Thursday, January 22, 2026.
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