Donor's note trashing design of pillars he funded at London's National Gallery is found

[sl8]

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/nx-s1-5095780/sainsbury-national-gallery-london-donors-letter-hidden-pillar-trashing-design

2 min. audio at link.

Donor's note trashing design of pillars he funded at London's National Gallery is found

AUGUST 30, 2024 2:13 PM ET
Lauren Frayer

LONDON – Hidden in a pillar he funded yet despised, Lord Sainsbury finally got the last word.

"TO THOSE WHO FIND THIS NOTE," wrote John Sainsbury, a member of the House of Lords who is also known as the Right Honorable Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover. It was July 1990. He was 62. His letter was typewritten, in all-caps.

Sainsbury, whose family founded the Sainsbury's supermarket chain in the late 19th century, was then chairman of his family's conglomerate, which also owns Shaw's supermarkets in the United States.

[...]

But a year earlier, during its construction, Lord Sainsbury soured on its design. He was particularly irked by two columns flanking the foyer of the new wing. They were ornamental, not structural. He thought they were useless, and ugly.

[...]

[eShirl]

1. haha

It reads: "IF YOU HAVE FOUND THIS NOTE YOU MUST BE ENGAGED IN DEMOLISHING ONE OF THE FALSE COLUMNS." He goes on to call the columns "A MISTAKE OF THE ARCHITECT."

"LET IT BE KNOWN THAT ONE OF THE DONORS OF THIS BUILDING IS ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED THAT YOUR GENERATION HAS DECIDED TO DISPENSE WITH THESE UNNECESSARY COLUMNS," he wrote and signed, on Sainsbury's letterhead.

[CTyankee]

2. The only thing I know about Sainsbury is that a major wing of London's National Gallery of Art

is called the "Sainsbury Wing." And it is fabulous. On my very last day of a trip I took to the UK I made it through every room of that Wing, despite the warnings of my travel buddy who was a nurse. My arthritic back has never been the same but I am happier that I did it and would regret not doing it.

I would do it again, but this time with a walker.