"London's National Gallery is to build a major new extension, featuring nearly as much space as the present Sainsbury Wing. The project will cost around £400m, of which £375m has already been quietly raised behind the scenes-an astonishing achievement. The pledges revealed today include two donations of £150m each. Gabriele Finaldi, the gallery director, told The Art Newspaper that these both represent "the largest-ever known cash donations to any cultural institution, not just in Britain, but globally"."
"Today's other key announcement, which will have a revolutionary long-term impact, is that the gallery will start to collect paintings from across the entire 20th century. Until now its cut-off date has been around 1900, although since the 1990s it has occasionally acquired early 20th-century works. Finaldi says that the new acquisition strategy will be enacted in "collaboration" with Tate, which has long collected international art from around 1900."
The National Gallery will construct a large new wing north of the Sainsbury Wing on the St Vincent House site, costing about £400m with roughly £375m already raised. Two donations of £150m each constitute the largest-ever known cash gifts to any cultural institution globally. An international architectural competition will launch on 12 September, with the new wing expected to open in the early 2030s after demolition of St Vincent House. The gallery will broaden its acquisition policy to include paintings across the entire 20th century, to be enacted in collaboration with Tate. Major donors include the Crankstart foundation and the Hans and Julia Rausing Trust.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]