LONDON, ENGLAND.-On Saturday 24 September the National Gallery will reopen its main Portico Entrance, and Room 1, both of which have been closed for a year while extensive building and refurbishment works have taken place. Room 1 will open with a special exhibition to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) and the generous support it has given the National Gallery during this time.

Since its foundation in 1980, the NHMF has played a crucial role in saving iconic works of art, objects, places and landscapes for the nation. This exhibition celebrates the joint achievement of the National Gallery and the NHMF in preserving for the public a group of works of exceptional artistic and historical significance.

The exhibition will bring together a group of seven celebrated paintings acquired by the National Gallery for the nation with the support of the NHMF - among them Holbein's 'Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling' which was acquired in 1993 with a grant of £3.5 million towards the cost and Claude's 'Enchanted Castle', acquired in 1981 with a contribution from the NHMF of £825,000. This painting influenced the romantic writers of the 19th century and is said to have inspired Keats to write his 'Ode to a Nightingale'.

Commenting on the exhibition, Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Gallery, said: 'We are delighted to be able to join in the NHMF's Silver Jubilee celebrations by staging this exhibition which brings together a group of tremendously important paintings, which would almost certainly have been lost to the nation without the Fund's support'.

Stephen Johnson, Head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, added 'Since 1980 the NHMF has spent £220 million on more than 1,200 emergency acquisitions, from the Flying Scotsman to Picasso's 'Weeping Woman'. We hope the public will visit this exhibition at the National Gallery and enjoy the results of our achievement over the last 25 years.'