Builders demolishing column at National Gallery uncover donor letter
Builders demolishing a column at London‘s National Gallery have uncovered a 34-year-old letter from the rich donor who paid for it and revealing he hated the pillar.
The late John Sainsbury and his two brothers backed the construction of the £30million wing and it was named after the family of supermarket moguls in 1990.
But the former Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover secretly loathed the concept of a ‘false column’ so much that he inserted a note into the structure.
It was found last year by demolition workers inside the columns which served no purpose in holding up the structure, it has only now been revealed.
Builders demolishing a column at London ‘s National Gallery have uncovered a 34-year-old letter from the rich donor who paid for it and revealing he hated the pillar
The former Lord Sainsbury died in 2022, aged 94. He secretly loathed the concept of a ‘false column’ so much that he inserted a note into the structure
It congratulated the workers on the decision to get rid of the column – signed by the Lord and typed in block capitals on Sainsbury’s-headed notepaper.
According to The Art Newspaper, it read: ‘If you have found this note you must be engaged in demolishing one of the false columns that have been placed in the foyer of the Sainsbury Wing of the national gallery.
‘I believe that the false columns are a mistake of the architect and that we would live to regret our accepting this detail of his design.
‘Let it be known that one of the donors of this building is absolutely delighted that your generation has decided to dispense with the unnecessary columns.’
The letter has now been deposited in the gallery’s archive as an historic document.
The former Lord Sainsbury died in 2022, aged 94.
His widow Anya, a former ballerina, was there when the note was removed and told The Art Newspaper: ‘I was so happy for John’s letter to be rediscovered after all these years and I feel he would be relieved and delighted for the gallery’s new plans and the extra space they are creating.’
The National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 and is undergoing a major development
The Sainsbury Wing was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 and is undergoing a major £35million development.
But the gallery is facing mutiny from conservation groups which say the wing should be protected from any changes at all to the structure.
The reconstruction work has also been vehemently opposed by one of its architects, Denise Scott Brown.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has also condemned the ‘insensitive’ plans for the wing, which is a Grade I-listed building.
It is being redesigned by the architect Annabelle Selldorf, whose plans may undo some of the ‘crypt-like’ features.
The Venturi design was only chosen after King Charles decried the original design in 1984, branding it a ‘monstrous carbuncle’
Charles sent shock waves through the architecture world in 1984 when he used a speech to the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects to lambast modern design.
He described the towering extension to the National Gallery as a ‘monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend’.
