The files about royal art historian Anthony Blunt are among a trove from the intelligence agency MI5 released Tuesday by Britain’s National Archives.

The identity of a Russian spy among Queen Elizabeth II's courtiers was kept from the monarch for almost a decade, but she took the news with her typically calm demeanour

Declassified documents confirm that the late Queen Elizabeth II of England was not informed until many years later that she had a KGB spy amongst her members of staff. She didn't like him anyway. Secrecy is the art of espionage.

Newly declassified files reveal the late Queen's very unexpected reaction to the art historian's shocking secret.

Anthony Blunt, who worked at Buckingham Palace as Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, was secretly a Soviet spy during WWII.

Queen Elizabeth II was not officially informed for nearly a decade that Anthony Blunt was a Soviet spy, newly declassified documents reveal.

Documents newly declassified by MI5, Britain's internal intelligence agency, show the late Queen Elizabeth II was not informed for almost 10 years that a member of her staff had spied for the then-Soviet Union.

For a decade, Queen Elizabeth II lived without knowing that her own art advisor, Anthony Blunt, a trusted man in charge of overseeing the invaluable Royal Collection, was living a double life as a Soviet agent.