National Gallery gets £375m donations for new wing

The National Gallery is in the north side of Trafalgar Square in central London

One of London's most popular attractions has announced plans to expand after receiving pledges of £375m from private donors.

The National Gallery said that sum included "the two largest ever publicly reported single cash donations to a museum or gallery globally".

The gallery has now launched an international architectural competition to design a new wing for its expanded collection.

It will be built on the last remaining part of the current campus and is planned to "revitalise the area between Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, creating a vibrant, fresh experience for visitors".

The National Gallery celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2024

Of the £375m pledged to date, £150m is coming from Crankstart, the charitable foundation of Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, and £150m from the Julia Rausing Trust.

Founder trustee, Sir Hans Rausing, said: "My beloved wife Julia was a passionate supporter of the National Gallery and its role in making great art accessible to all.

"She would have wholeheartedly embraced the vision and ambition behind this project, recognising its potential to transform the understanding and appreciation of art, and to reinforce the gallery's role on the world stage.

"This gift is given in her memory, so that others may discover the same beauty and inspiration in art that meant so much to her."

Bathers at Asnières by Georges Seurat is part of the gallery's permanent collection

A further £75m is coming from the National Gallery Trust, National Gallery's chairman of trustees, John Booth, plus other donors who wish to remain anonymous.

This funding will also support the gallery's "move to extend its historic collection and marks the beginning of an exciting new collaboration with Tate and other museums in the United Kingdom and around the world", the institution said.

Founded by Parliament in 1824, the gallery, which has free entry, houses the nation's collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century.

The collection includes works by Cezanne, Degas, Da Vinci, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez.

Director of the National Gallery, Sir Gabriele Finaldi, has said he is "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".

He added: "With the bicentenary celebrations now completed, the National Gallery looks to the future.

"We 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."