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The King and Queen will continue living at nearby Clarence House

Buckingham Palace's Picture Gallery will welcome visitors on Thursday with an expanded display of 120 masterpieces from the Royal Collection, nearly doubling the previous count of 63 works.

The transformation will display paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio, Zoffany, Rembrandt and Vermeer against new emerald-green silk damask wall hangings.

Fresh lighting will accompany the visual overhaul of one of the Palace's most significant reception rooms, forming part of the State Rooms open to the public each summer.

The revamp arrives weeks after confirmation that no British monarch will permanently reside at the Palace again, marking a historic shift in how the 775-room building will function in future.

King Charles and Queen Camilla's decision to not take up permanent residence at Buckingham Palace ends a tradition dating back to Queen Victoria's reign in 1837.

The decision emerged during the release of the Sovereign Grant Report, the Royal Household's annual financial statement, after a decade-long refurbishment of the Palace's plumbing, electrical systems and heating costing £369 million.

The King and Queen will continue living at nearby Clarence House, while the Palace will remain the monarchy's official administrative and ceremonial headquarters.

Prince William has similarly indicated he does not plan to move his family into the building when he eventually accedes to the throne, opting to stay at Forest Lodge.

More than half a million visitors pass through Buckingham Palace's Picture Gallery annually.

Curators consulted historic watercolours, photographs, inventories and architectural plans to devise the new arrangement, which required 875 hours of installation work and returns the space closer to its original appearance.

Anna Reynolds, Surveyor of The King's Pictures, said: "This re-hang is an exciting and rare opportunity to significantly increase the number of world-class paintings on display for visitors, in line with our charitable aim to share as much of the Royal Collection as possible. It continues the longstanding tradition of renovations and re-hangs in the Picture Gallery that have commonly taken place following a change of reign, and we are delighted to be able to share it with as many people as possible this summer."

The gallery was originally designed by architect John Nash to display George IV's exceptional collection, though the monarch died before its completion.

Queen Victoria first saw the gallery hung upon her accession in 1837, and the current display echoes her 1840s arrangement with a dedicated section celebrating 18th-century British art.

Johan Zoffany's The Tribuna of the Uffizi will stand as a centrepiece, depicting the famous Florentine gallery bustling with visitors admiring works by Holbein, Rubens and Raphael.

Five Rembrandt paintings will now hang together alongside one attributed to his workshop, while seven Rubens works will be united in a single grouping.

An evocative pairing will place Rubens's Self Portrait opposite his portrait of Anthony Van Dyck, recreating an arrangement known to have existed at Whitehall Palace during the 1660s.

Vermeer's Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, acquired by George III, will remain in the 47-metre-long gallery alongside 12 Venetian scenes by Canaletto.