Portrait identified as wrong royal

EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 20 (UPI) -- Art experts say a portrait in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery that is purported to be of Prince Charles Edward Stuart is actually of his younger brother.

The British Art Journal said its researchers found the Maurice-Quentin La Tour painting, which has become an iconic image of Prince Charles Edward Stuart since it was acquired by the gallery in 1994, was actually a portrait of Charles' brother Henry, a cardinal, The Scotsman reported Friday.

"There is no doubt at all about it," said Robin Simon, editor of the journal. "It's rare that anything is so spectacularly wrong."

Duncan Thomson, the former director of the gallery who oversaw the portrait's purchase, conceded that the man in the painting is probably Henry.

"It's become an awfully important image of Bonnie Prince Charlie. I think I have got to confess guilt in this instance," he said.

"There's so much circumstantial evidence. It looks like Henry Benedict, I've got to confess," Thomson said. "I was fooled by the fact he is wearing armor, which is what soldiers did, and cardinals don't wear armor. But in fact Henry Benedict had briefly been technically a soldier."