Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn’t want to add to her worries, newly declassified documents reveal.

London: Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn’t want to add to her worries, newly declassified documents reveal.

The identity of a Russian spy among Queen Elizabeth II's courtiers was kept from the monarch for almost a decade, but she took the news with her typically calm demeanour

Queen Elizabeth II was kept in the dark about her art advisor being a Russian spy to avoid adding to her worries. Blunt confessed to spying for the Soviet Union in 1964 but kept his job and knighthood until his role was publicly revealed in 1979 by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II was left in the dark for almost a decade over the full scale of the actions of one of her most senior courtiers, according to newly released official files. In 1964, Sir Anthony Blunt, the surveyor of the Queen’s pictures and distinguished art historian, finally confessed he had been a Soviet agent since the 1930s.

Newly declassified British documents show that Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t told details of her long-time art adviser's double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials didn’t want to add to her worries.

Art historian Anthony Blunt was for decades Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, overseeing the official Royal Art Collection, and in 1964 admitted he had been a Soviet agent since t