The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in central London which was opened in 1856. It houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter rather than the fame of the artist or the artistic merits of the work. The collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture. It moved to its present building adjacent to the National Gallery in 1896, since when it has been expanded twice, most recently with the opening of the Ondaatje Wing in 2000. In addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing collection of contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists, and hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition.
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