The items returned for A Prince’s Treasure were removed from the Royal Pavilion in 1847-48.

The building was stripped when Queen Victoria decided to stop using it as a royal residence. Assuming that the Royal Pavilion would be demolished 137 loads of furniture and decorations were removed. In 1850 Victoria sold the Royal Pavilion to Brighton Town Commissioners. It was an empty and devastated building.

It was widely believed that Victoria sold the Royal Pavilion because she disliked its style. This is not true. She and Prince Albert admired the interiors. A lot of the decorative ornaments and furnishings were used in the new spaces at Buckingham Palace. Victoria and Albert’s interest in saving and reusing the fittings of the Royal Pavilion ensured their survival. Over the years some items of original Pavilion decoration have been returned by Queen Victoria, King George V and Queen Mary and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

These remarkable objects reveal George IV’s vision for his exotic palace by the sea. George, first as Prince of Wales, then as Prince Regent, and finally as King directed the creation of the Royal Pavilion. Originally these objects were all bought or commissioned for this building. They were removed when it stopped being a royal residence in the 1840s. Queen Victoria reused many of them to furnish Buckingham Palace.

Construction work at the Palace has provided the opportunity for over 120 of these objects to return to the Royal Pavilion. They will remain until 2021.