Nearly four decades after Queen Elizabeth II opened Scotland’s Burrell Collection, King Charles III marked the institution’s reopening with a visit Thursday. The event marked his first official engagement in Glasgow as monarch.
The gallery and museum, which closed in October 2016, reopened to the public earlier this year in March, following a £68.2 million ($75.3 million) project to increase gallery space by 35 percent.
The Burrell Collection was originally opened by the king’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1983. The collection, which houses 9,000 objects, was donated to the city of Glasgow by shipping merchant Sir William Burrell and his wife Constance in 1944.
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For his visit, King Charles was clad in Royal Stewart Hunting Tartan as he was presented an autumnal wreath by local school children. Jane Rowlands, senior museums manager at Glasgow Life, took him on a guided tour of the exhibitions.
The king stopped to admire a statue of the Luohan, portraying a Buddhist monk, with which both his mother and grandmother were previously photographed. He also viewed the collection of stained-glass windows and tapestries before meeting with volunteers and workers who contributed to the museum’s refurbishment.
Before leaving, the king unveiled a plaque commemorating the occasion.
King Charles III’s passion for art began in his youth and has been continually cultivated through the painting of his own watercolors over the last 50 years.