From The Guardian:<\/p>\n
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The Anglo-Saxon kings, newly restored and on public display for the first time in 500 years, gaze out regally, showing no signs of having spent a century walled up in an outside lavatory in Kent.<\/p>\n
The kings are among the treasures which the Society of Antiquaries is putting on display to celebrate its 330th birthday, in the galleries of its next door neighbour, the Royal Academy. The imposing but eccentric collection includes Tudor royal portraits described by David Starkey, an expert on the history of the period, as “staggering”[.]<\/p>\n
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The life size paintings of Athelstan, and another unidentified Anglo Saxon king, are also royal propaganda. They are completely fictional portraits, but were painted for Henry VII, probably for his great hall at Eltham Palace, to assert his own place in the pagaent of English history. They were rediscovered in 1813, turned back to front and used as wainscotting in an outside lavatory at Baston House in Kent, along with fragments of four other kings, all hacked to pieces to fit the wall space.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The exhibition runs through December. <\/p>\n
Full article<\/a><\/p>\n