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Loaning items to exhibitions

Conservators working on collection items at The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio at Knole, Kent
Conservators working on collection items at The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio at Knole, Kent | © National Trust Images/Megan Taylor

We lend paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and furniture to museums and galleries around the world, so they can be enjoyed by millions of visitors. Discover where some of the items we care for are displayed, and find out about our loans procedure.

Recent loans

 

A portrait of Nancy Astor by John Singer Sargent at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire
A portrait of Nancy Astor by John Singer Sargent at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire | © National Trust Images

Nancy Astor portrait on display at Kenwood House, London

The recently conserved portrait of Nancy Astor by John Singer Sargent is one of eighteen portraits of women described as the ‘Dollar Princesses’. The exhibition reveals the lives of these fascinating American women who crossed the Atlantic to marry British aristocrats in an exchange of money for titles. Heiress: Sargent's American Portraits is at Kenwood House, London, from 16 May until 5 October 2025.

See the full painting in our collections

A portrait of Princess Elizabeth, Princess Royal, Abbess of Hervorden by Gerrit van Honthorst
A portrait of Princess Elizabeth, Princess Royal, Abbess of Hervorden by Gerrit van Honthorst | © National Trust Images

Portrait by the artist Gerrit Van Honthorst travels to America

Usually on display at Ashdown in Berkshire, the portrait of Princess Elizabeth, Abbess of Hervorden by Gerrit Van Honthorst is travelling to two venues in the USA for the first time. The exhibition will explore the biblical Book of Esther as widely illustrated in seventeenth-century Holland. The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt opens at the Jewish Museum in New York in March and the North Carolina Museum of Art in September 2025.

See the full painting online

 

National Trust loans out procedure

Loans to exhibitions are regarded as a significant factor in providing access to Trust collections. The registrar team are happy to advise about the selection and availability of objects for loan, but we suggest preliminary research should be carried out at least a year in advance.

Discover more about how to request to loan an object for an exhibition, which objects are elegible and the processes and policies in place. 

Read more about our loans out procedure

National Trust loans out terms and conditions

Loans are approved by the Loans Board, which meets four times a year.

Read our loan terms and conditions

The Nobel Prize in Literature presentation folder, which was awarded to Winston Churchill in 1953 at Chartwell, Kent

Art and collections

We care for one of the world's largest and most significant collections of art and heritage objects. Explore the highlights, our latest major exhibitions, curatorial research and more.

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