微密圈

The National Gallery is launching an architectural competition for what it describes as the most significant transformation in its 200-year history.

The museum has unveiled plans to build a 拢375m new wing on the last remaining part of its Charing Cross campus, a 1960s building called St Vincent House which sits directly behind the Sainsbury Wing.

The new building is envisaged to exhibit artworks outside of the gallery鈥檚 traditional collection, which has been informally limited to those dating to before 1900, through loans from the Tate.

In an announcement this morning, the museum said it wants the scheme to be of 鈥渂oth local and international significance, enriching the nation鈥檚 artistic presence on a global scale鈥�.

It said the competition, launching tomorrow, is expected to attract both long-established and 鈥渆xciting, younger鈥� architectural firms with the new wing intended to bolster the relevance of 鈥渂oth the National Gallery and the UK within a highly competitive global cultural landscape鈥�.

The project鈥檚 huge price tag is a result of two of the largest ever publicly reported single cash donations to a museum or gallery anywhere in the world, with 拢150m coming from Crankstart, a charity founded by Michael Mortiz and his wife Harriet Heyman, and 拢150m from the Julia Rausing Trust.

Moritz is a Welsh former journalist and venture capitalist with an estimated net worth of 拢4.3bn who also funds the Booker Prize.

The Julia Rausing Trust is named in honour of Julia Rausing, a philanthropist who died last year. Charity trustee Hans Rausing said the donation was given in his late wife鈥檚 memory 鈥渟o that others may discover the same beauty and inspiration in art that meant so much to her鈥�.

> Also read: 

A further 拢75 million is coming from the National Gallery Trust, National Gallery chairman of trustees John Booth, and other donors who wish to remain anonymous. 

National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi said: 鈥淲e are hugely excited by these developments and are immensely grateful to our donors for their support - on an unprecedented scale - as the National Gallery steps into its third century.鈥�

He said that with the expansion, named Project Domani, the gallery was 鈥渓ooking to the future鈥� following the bicentenary which it celebrated last year with

鈥淲e want to be the place where the UK public and visitors from across the globe can enjoy the finest painting collection in the world from medieval times to our own, in a superb architectural setting,鈥� he added.

The announcement follows a recent meeting between the trustees of the National Gallery and Tate which where a 鈥渉istoric partnership鈥� is said to have been agreed in principle.

Tate director Maria Balshaw confirmed the gallery group will loan artworks to the National Gallery and provide curatorial and conservational expertise for the new displays.

The site鈥檚 existing building was built in the 1960s and currently houses office space and a hotel. It was acquired by the National Gallery in the late 1990s for the purpose of expanding the museum鈥檚 gallery space.

The National Gallery said the project will also aim to revitalise the area between Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square to create a 鈥渧ibrant, fresh experience鈥� for visitors, with the new wing intended to take advantage of advances in building techniques and sustainability in recent decades.