On 15 November 1979, following the publication of Andrew Boyles' book Climate of Betrayal, which suggested that a senior figure was working for Soviet intelligence, Margaret Thatcher named the man as Professor Anthony Blunt, Warden of the Royal Art Gallery and Queen's Councilor on the Arts, a fourth cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Blunt was subsequently stripped of his knighthood.
The general public only became aware of its intelligence activities in detail in the 1990s, thanks to the television film A Question of Attribution by Alan Bennett about the influence of the KGB on British art history.
Blunt was awarded the Soviet Military Order.