The essay focuses on the commercial interests which played an important and not sufficiently acknowledged role in the debate on the opportunity to create a ‘national gallery’ in Great Britain at the end of the 18th and in the first decades of the successive century. The issue of a national gallery, in precarious balance between ‘emporium’ and ‘sanctuary’, was closely related to important topics in the artistic debate: the juxtaposition between old masters and contemporary artists, the role of those active in the art world (RA, artists, art dealer, etc.) and the status of the works of art of the past.
