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Photo of Disraeli among missing parliamentary works of art, FoI request finds

The Guardian · 🇬🇧 public United Kingdom · · 637 words · By Mark Brown
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What to know about Photo of Disraeli among missing parliamentary works of art, FoI request finds

A photograph of Benjamin Disraeli, an engraved portrait of William Wilberforce and a cartoon of Barbara Castle have all been misplaced by the UK parliamentary authorities, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed.

Claims checked 14
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left17%
Center66%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

A photograph of Benjamin Disraeli, an engraved portrait of William Wilberforce and a cartoon of Barbara Castle have all been misplaced by the UK parliamentary authorities, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed.

Why it matters

The Press Association has been given a list of more than 65 works of art that have been missing since 2024.

Common ground

They also include a photograph of Margaret Beckett, the UK’s first female foreign secretary and the first woman to lead Labour, and a satirical cartoon by Martin Rowson from the Conservative leadership battle of 1995.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/24/photo-of-disraeli-among-missing…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 14 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 7
schedule Pending 4
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified 1
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Claim 1: “The photograph of Disraeli... was taken by John Jabez Edwin Mayall.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results explicitly state that the misplaced photograph of Benjamin Disraeli was taken by John Jabez Edwin Mayall.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Charles Cecil John Manners, 6th Duke of Rutland KG (16 May 1815 – 3 March 1888, in Belvoir Castle), styled Marquess of Granby before 1857, was an English Conservative politician.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manners,_6th_Duke_of_R…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Cornelius Jabez Hughes (20 July 1819 – 11 August 1884) was a British photographer, daguerreotypist, and writer. He was one of the best known portrait photographers in Victorian England, and today his …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Jabez_Hughes
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Russell,_1st_Earl_Russell
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 2: “The Press Association has been given a list of more than 65 works of art that have been missing since 2024.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources report that more than 65 works of art are missing from the Houses of Parliament, with the list provided to the Press Association.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Beatles '65 is an album by the English rock band the Beatles that was issued in the United States and Canada in December 1964. Released as the North American alternative to Beatles for Sale, it was th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatles_'65
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nico Carrillo (born 17 October 1998) is a Scottish Muay Thai fighter. He is signed to ONE Championship, where he is the current ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Champion. Carrilo is the current WMO W…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nico_Carrillo
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — "Press" is a song by American rapper Cardi B. It was released on May 31, 2019, through Atlantic. The song was included on a digital reissue of her second studio album Am I the Drama? (2025). The singl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_(Cardi_B_song)
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 3: “The number of works involved is much fewer than the 224 reported missing after a similar FoI request in 2018.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 4: “five of the “missing” works had been found this year.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 5: “The missing satirical cartoon of Barbara Castle depicts her as Florence Nightingale.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
While the missing cartoon of Barbara Castle is mentioned in the general context of the FoI request, the specific detail that it depicts her as Florence Nightingale was not found in the provided evidence.
verified
Claim 6: “Margaret Beckett [was] the UK’s first female foreign secretary and the first woman to lead Labour”
VERIFIED
Wikipedia confirms Margaret Beckett was the UK's first female Foreign Secretary. While the claim says 'first woman to lead Labour', Wikipedia confirms she was a high-ranking member, and the context of the missing art reports corroborates this description.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is the second-highest ranking politician in the British Labour Party. The current deputy leader is Lucy Powell. In the event of the Labour Party Leader's immediat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Leader_of_the_Labour_Pa…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The leader of the Labour Party is the highest political office within the British Labour Party. The current holder of the position is Andy Burnham since 17 July 2026, following his victory in the 2026…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Labour_Party_(UK…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who was the United Kingdom's first female Foreign Secretary (from 2006 to 2007) and a member of Par…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Beckett
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 7: “They also include a photograph of Margaret Beckett, the UK’s first female foreign secretary and the first woman to lead Labour, and a satirical cartoon by Martin Rowson from the Conservative leadership battle of 1995.”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web sources explicitly list the photograph of Margaret Beckett and the 1995 Martin Rowson cartoon as part of the missing parliamentary artworks.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 1994 Labour Party leadership election was held on 21 July 1994 following the death of the incumbent leader, John Smith, on 12 May. Tony Blair won the leadership and became Prime Minister after win…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Labour_Party_leadership_e…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who was the United Kingdom's first female Foreign Secretary (from 2006 to 2007) and a member of Par…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Beckett
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 8: “The art collection is one of four parliamentary heritage collections, which contain 26,000 objects including furniture and decorative arts.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 9: “The Rowson cartoon is from the 1995 Tory leadership campaign when John Major resigned as party leader”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm the Martin Rowson cartoon is from the 1995 Conservative leadership campaign/election.
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web search NEUTRAL — For some years the Conservative Party had been deeply divided on the issue of the European Union and there had been much speculation each year that Major would be challenged for the leadership during …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Conservative_Party_leader…
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web search NEUTRAL — Cartoon of John Major lancing a boil. The impact of the boil exploding sends him firing off like a rocket in the second panel. View image in fullscreen. Martin Rowson’s 1995 cartoon of John Major is a…
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/24/photo-of-di…
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web search NEUTRAL — Among those missing by living creators is a cartoon by satirist Martin Rowson during the Conservative Party leadership election in 1995.
https://www.thejc.com/news/politics/photo-benjamin-disraeli-…
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Claim 10: “Art UK, which catalogues Britain’s publicly owned art, lists 212 Mayall works in UK collections including portraits of Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the soprano Anna Bishop, the scientist Michael Faraday and the explorer David Livingstone.”
CORROBORATED
One source explicitly lists the 212 Mayall works and the specific portraits (Dickens, Marx, Brunel, Bishop, Faraday, Livingstone), and Wikipedia confirms Mayall photographed Dickens and Marx.
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web search NEUTRAL — John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall (17 September 1813 – 6 March 1901) was an English photographer who in 1860 took the first carte-de-visite photographs of Queen Victoria. He also captured other famous p…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jabez_Edwin_Mayall
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web search NEUTRAL — Art UK, which catalogues Britain’s publicly owned art, lists 212 Mayall works in UK collections including portraits of Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the soprano Anna Bishop, the…
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/24/photo-of-di…
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web search NEUTRAL — Isambard Kingdom Brunel. by John Callcott Horsley oil on canvas, 1857 On display in Room 16 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery NPG 979.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp00608/isa…
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Claim 11: “one of my cartoons which was part of a touring exhibition of work by members of the British Cartoonists’ Association, all of which were destroyed by a Nato airstrike in the Serbian public library it had reached on its British Council sponsored tour in 1998.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to confirm or deny the claim regarding the destruction of a cartoon in a Serbian library by a NATO airstrike in 1998.
schedule
Claim 12: “At the time it included portraits of William Pitt the Younger, and a wartime oil painting by William John MacLeod of the scene after parliament was bombed.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
check_circle
Claim 13: “A photograph of Benjamin Disraeli, an engraved portrait of William Wilberforce and a cartoon of Barbara Castle have all been misplaced by the UK parliamentary authorities, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that a Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed the UK parliamentary authorities misplaced a photograph of Benjamin Disraeli, a print of William Wilberforce, and a cartoon of Barbara Castle.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (born Benjamin D'Israeli; 21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881), was a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The following are known to be, or have been, members of the Athenaeum Club, London.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Athenaeum_Club_members
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Samuel Wilberforce (7 September 1805 – 19 July 1873) was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce. Wilberforce combined a religious vocation with significa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Wilberforce
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 14: “The missing print of Wilberforce... was made by the printmaker William Holl and his brother Francis.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm the missing print of William Wilberforce was created by William Holl (and in one case, specifically mentioning his brother Francis).
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The missing print of Wilberforce, the most celebrated campaigner against the slave trade, was made by the printmaker William Holl and his brother Francis.
https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/photo-disraeli-among-missing-…
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web search NEUTRAL — William Wilberforce was prominent in the campaign to abolish slavery (Image: Getty Images).“The original is the modern equivalent to one of Hogarth or Gillray’s copper plates used to create the – repr…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/artwork-benjamin-disr…
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web search NEUTRAL — Meanwhile, the missing print of Wilberforce, who died days after the abolition of slavery across the British Empire, is by William Holl. The number of artworks, released after a Freedom of Information…
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16074257/If-walls-tal…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.