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UK's Thatcher sweeps back to Downing Street
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-24 02:15

LONDON: Margaret Thatcher returned to London's Downing Street for good Monday — in the form of a portrait installed at the official residence of Britain's prime minister.

UK's Thatcher sweeps back to Downing Street
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is seen posing next to a portrait of herself and artist Richard Stone, who painted the portrait, in this handout released to Reuters in London November 23, 2009. Thatcher attended the unveiling of the portrait at 10 Downing Street Monday. [Agencies]

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Thatcher, prime minister from 1979 to 1990, joined Premier Gordon Brown and David Cameron, a successor to Thatcher as Conservative Party leader, at 10 Downing Street to unveil the work.

Brown spokesman Simon Lewis said artist Richard Stone's painting would be displayed in a first floor lobby. It was paid for by an anonymous private donor.

Thatcher is the first living lawmaker to be honored with a portrait at Downing Street.

Photographs of all modern prime ministers line the residence's main staircase, but only two ex-leaders have painted portraits on display: Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George.