The National Portrait Gallery is closed to the public today for a London Fashion Week show, in a closure which is uncommon for an institution which relies on public funding.

Independent British designer Erdem Moralioglu, a favourite of the Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan Markle, has hired out the gallery to showcase his work — but a leading artist has described the closure of the public gallery as a "dangerous precedent."

The National Portrait Gallery has also only announced the closure in small print on its website — which some have argued could lead to disappointed potential gallery goers.

Patrick Brill, who creates art under the pseudonym Bob And Roberta Smith, is displayed in the Tate and is a lecture at London Metropolitan University, argued the government should increase funding for the arts so galleries would not have to close to the public.

He argued on BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that the situation is "Orwellian...you have to close to stay open".