Poses with wolves—guests team up with Game of Thrones canine stars at National Gallery launch

Saint Francis of Assisi is, of course, the patron saint of animals (the holy man even quieted a flock of noisy birds disrupting a religious ceremony according to a speculative tale). London’s National Gallery is paying homage to the nature-loving saint in a major show which opened this week featuring works by Caravaggio, Josefa de Óbidos, Stanley Spencer, Antony Gormley, and Giuseppe Penone. Hats off to the marketing supremo who brought in a pair of statuesque (real-life) “wolves” for the exhibition launch which were well behaved throughout the VIP bash, posing serenely with guests. Our spies on the ground say that the selfie-friendly creatures are on loan from a company called Watermill Wolves and once appeared in the blockbuster TV fantasy drama Game of Thrones. “The Watermill Wolves are not in fact wolves, but are wolf dogs,” says the company website though “they do have varying amounts of wolf dna.” The National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi especially enjoyed having his pic taken with the cute canines.