The Welsh national museum has removed a picture of a slave-owner who was the most senior British officer to be killed at the Battle of Waterloo.
The ‘heroic’ portrait of lieutenant general Sir Thomas Picton will not be displayed again until a group of artists have completed a £12,000 commission to ‘reinterpret’ it.
The work has hung at the museum in Cardiff 100 years, but in recent years there has been growing scrutiny of Picton’s legacy following the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The ‘heroic portrait of Sir Thomas Picton, lieutenant general, (right) won’t be displayed at the Welsh National Museum again until it is reinterpreted. Pictured left is a statue of the slave-owner that was removed last year from Cardiff city hall

The work has hung at the museum in Cardiff 100 years, but in recent years there has been growing scrutiny of Picton’s legacy following the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement
Despite being a war hero, the Welshman was also known as the ‘Tyrant of Trinidad’ and executed dozens of slaves while serving as the island’s governor.
The National Museum Wales has announced that new commissions will be made to retell Picton’s story from the perspective of the people he touched.
Kath Davies, Museum director for collections, stated that Picton’s past is complex, complicated, and controversial. She said that she had always recognized this and wanted to help young people decide how to look at it and how to interpret it.
“The Trinidadian Day of Independence will see the work of the artists on display in August 2012.
‘We’ll be working on the interpretation of Picton with the young people over the next few weeks.’
The Sub Sahara Advisory Panel will decide the future of the painting, whose director Fadhili Makiya welcomed its removal.
He said, “It’s almost a new age in some ways, especially when you look at who he was and what he stood up for.
It does open up new perspectives on conversations about race and diversity, inclusion, and inclusion.
Picton was a Welshman who was born August 24, 1758, in Haverfordwest in west Wales. He is still buried at St Paul’s Cathedral, despite his death at Waterloo in the 1815.
His portrait will now be replaced by “Hedger and Ditcher, Portrait of William Lloyd”, which Albert Houthuesen painted. He was a Dutch artist who fell in love with the working life in Trelogan, Flintshire while on holiday with his spouse in the 1930s.
Councillors in Cardiff City Hall voted to remove Picton’s statue during a probe by the Welsh government into offensive statues.
Councillors stated that the statue was an “affront” to black Cardiffans and “no longer acceptable”.
But last December counsellors in Carmarthen voted against removing or renaming a monument to the local hero.
Since 1888, the memorial has been located in Picton Terrace, a south-western town.
Reacting to demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US in May, Carmarthenshire Council set up a taskforce to review matters relating to racial inequality.
Its mandate was to interpret and explain the history of Sir Thomas Picton as well as the Carmarthen monument.
A majority of locals decided to keep the statue. They argued that history cannot be changed or erased and called the monument “recognition” of a Carmarthen hero who saved Britain from Napoleon.


In July 2020, councillors voted against removing a Picton statue at Cardiff City Hall (left), amid a Welsh government investigation into offensive statues. However, Carmarthen councillors voted last December against removing or changing the name of the monument to the local hero.

Some of the more then 200 statues and roads in Wales are identified as bearing the names ‘linked to slavery trade’.