In 1994, he published a book on 18th century interior design, before becoming director of the National Portrait Gallery. There, he and his staff more than doubled visitor figures by staging exhibitions of contemporary photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber and the fashion photographer Mario Testino. He also presided over the building of an extension to the NPG in 2000, the Ondaatje Wing, designed by Sir Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones. From 2001 to 2002, Saumarez Smith held the Slade Professorship at the University of Oxford, where he lectured on "The State of the Museum". Saumarez Smith was a candidate to be Director at the V&A and the British Museum before becoming the director of the National Gallery in 2002. The main success of his directorship was the purchase of Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks in 2004 for £22 million, raised by a successful public appeal. However, few other major acquisitions were made by the National Gallery under Saumarez Smith due to the inflated prices commanded for Old Master paintings. He was a vocal critic of Tony Blair's government for giving too little money towards museum funding, and for not creating tax incentives for potential donors to museums. 2006 saw the opening of a new ground-floor entrance hall at the National Gallery, designed, like the Ondaatje Wing, by Dixon Jones architects. This project was already begun under Saumarez Smith's predecessor Neil MacGregor. In 2007, news broke of a power struggle between Peter Scott, head of the Gallery's board of trustees, and the director. At the same, time it became known that Saumarez Smith was applying for the newly created post of Secretary and Chief Executive at the Royal Academy. He resigned from the National Gallery on 26 July 2007 and was succeeded by Martin Wyld, head conservator at the Gallery, as acting director, until Nicholas Penny was appointed permanent director in the spring of 2008. In his time at the Royal Academy of Arts, Saumarez Smith was responsible for restoring the Keeper’s House to its former glory and the development of plans for 6 Burlington Gardens, a Grade II*-listed building designed by Sir James Pennethorne immediately north of the Royal Academy, including the appointment of the architect Sir David Chipperfield. In the lead-up to the RA's 250th anniversary in 2018, Saumarez Smith oversaw annual fund-raising, revenue funding for the RA, and capital fund-raising for the capital project, which