Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to request the total number of works that you hold in your permanent collections.

If an exact figure is not available, please provide instead your estimated total, along with an explanation as to how this figure was calculated.

Yours faithfully,

Frankie Roberto

P.S Please note that this same request has been made to all the UK museums and galleries covered under the Freedom of Information Act, and that your response will be automatically made public at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/frank.... This request is partly a test of the WhatDoTheyKnow project. If you have any questions about the project, you can contact the project team at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/contact

Thank you for your enquiry which has been received by the Heinz Archive & Library at the National Portrait Gallery.

If you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 please can you re-direct it to [The National Portrait Gallery request email]. It will be answered within 20 working days of receipt.

If your enquiry is not a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 it will be answered as part of the general portrait enquiry service provided by the Archive & Library. At the present time we are aiming to respond to enquiries within 15 working days. Please note, however, that we are unable to respond to enquiries that relate to foreign portraiture or aspects of art unrelated to portraiture; or to provide advice concerning valuations; or answers to competition, crossword puzzle and quiz questions. For enquiries relating to these subjects we would recommend you contact your nearest public reference library in the first instance to identify appropriate sources for such information.

Yours sincerely

Robin Francis
Head of Archive and Library
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin's Place
London WC2H 0HE
Tel: 020 7312 2410
Fax: 020 7306 0056
www.npg.org.uk

Dear Frankie Roberto,

Thank you for your enquiry.

The National Portrait Gallery does not normally use the phrase
'permanent collection', but rather we refer to the works in our
Collections in the following manner:

* The Primary Collection -
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/primcoll.asp

* The Photographs Collection -
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/photcoll.asp

* The Archive Collection of Prints & Drawings -
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/arccoll.asp

A full explanation of the nature of each of the Collections, and details
of the number of items in each group is available on our website: I have
included the relevant link beside each Collection name.

To explain further - the Primary Collection is the Gallery's main
display Collection; the Photographs & Archive Collections were
established primarily as a reference resource (although also used for
display purposes). As such, a complete figure is only available for the
Primary Collection: as of 7 May, there were 11012 works in this
Collection. We only have estimates available for the Photographs &
Archive Collections (see web links above). These figures were reached
by a survey exercise undertaken in 1999/2000.

I do hope this information is useful, but please do not hesitate to
contact me if you have any further questions.

Regards

Charlotte Brunskill

show quoted sections

From: Frankie Roberto [[FOI #339 email]]

Sent: 05 May 2008 09:31

To: Charlotte Brunskill

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Total number of works in the

National Portrait Gallery's collections

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to request the total number of works that you hold in

your permanent collections.

If an exact figure is not available, please provide instead your

estimated total, along with an explanation as to how this figure
was calculated.

Yours faithfully,

Frankie Roberto

P.S Please note that this same request has been made to all the UK

museums and galleries covered under the Freedom of Information Act,

and that your response will be automatically made public at

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/frank.... This request is

partly a test of the WhatDoTheyKnow project. If you have any

questions about the project, you can contact the project team at
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/contact

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Dear Charlotte Brunskill,

Many thanks for your response.

Yours sincerely,

Frankie Roberto