Builders find note from the past hidden in National Gallery column | National Gallery

Builders dismantling a column in the National Gallery were surprised to find a long-lost letter among the rubble, thanking them for demolishing the ‘redundant’ column.

While removing a column in the Sainsbury Wing of the gallery, demolition workers discovered a 1990 letter from the financier, John Sainsbury, the former chairman of the eponymous supermarket chain, which said it was “absolutely delighted” that the pillar had been removed.

The letter, wrapped in a plastic folder, was found buried in the column. Sainsbury gained access to the wing while it was under construction and dropped his damning letter into the concrete column as it was being built. It was discovered last year when the wing’s foyer was being redecorated.

The pillar was included in plans drawn up by American postmodern architect Robert Venturi and his professional partner and wife, Denise Scott Brown. In the letter, he criticized the couple for placing two large false pillars in the gallery’s hallway that served no structural purpose.

On paper with the letterhead of supermarket Sainsbury’s, the former Conservative lord had typed his message in all capital letters. It read: “To those who find this letter.

“If you have found this note, you must be in the process of demolishing one of the false columns which have been placed in the entrance hall of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery. I believe that the false columns are a mistake by the architect and that we would regret it if we were to accept this detail of his design.

“Let it be known that one of the donors of this building is extremely pleased that your generation decided to remove the unnecessary pillars.

Sainsbury died in 2022 at the age of 94. His window, Anya Linden, 91, was at the scene when the letter was removed from the column. She said: “I was so pleased that John’s letter was rediscovered after all these years… and I think he would be relieved and pleased with the gallery’s new plans and the extra space they are creating.”

The letter has been filed in the gallery’s archives as a historical document. Neil MacGregor, the gallery’s director from 1987 to 2002, told the Art Newspaper that he had agreed to the false columns at the time. “Although there were drawbacks, Venturi had a coherent idea of ​​the organic connection between the entrance, the staircase and the main galleries. I felt that, on balance, we should let the architect be the architect,” he said.

The Sainsbury Wing was opened in 1991 by Queen Elizabeth II and was funded entirely by Sainsbury and his two brothers: Simon, who died in 2006, and Timothy, a former Conservative Party minister.

Last year the gallery launched an £85m project to upgrade the Sainsbury Wing – the main improvement being a more open and welcoming foyer – to cope with rising visitor numbers that have far exceeded those anticipated when it was first designed in the 1980s. The newly refurbished wing is due to open in May next year.