Long lost portrait of Scotland’s great poet Robert Burns goes on show for first time

A long-lost portrait of Robert Burns by Henry Raeburn, painted in 1803, has gone on public display for the first time at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, just in time for Burns Night on 25 January. The painting resurfaced in a house clearance in Surrey and was auctioned in Wimbledon in March 2025 with a guide price of £300–£500; collector and Burns enthusiast William Zachs purchased it for £68,000 after a tense bidding war, gambling on the Raeburn attribution. Experts including Patricia Allerston and Duncan Thomson have since confirmed the work is authentic, and it is now exhibited alongside Alexander Nasmyth's 1787 portrait of Burns.