When Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano “asked the other 26 EU heads of state to choose a work of art to send to Rome for the exhibition – Italy’s contribution to celebrations marking the 1957 signing of the Treaty of Rome, the EU’s founding document – he gave them a free hand. The result is an extraordinarily eclectic mixture that has drawn applause but also raised a few eyebrows. The Queen, I was told, had had no doubts, firmly telling President Napolitano when he paid a state visit to London in October that the artist to represent Britain was J. M. W. Turner.”