Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover has made a £25million donation to The British Museum, the largest donation to UK arts in 25 years.
The donation will go towards the Museum’s £135m exhibition space for major shows and a conservation centre, designed by Lord Rogers. Work on the glass and traditional stone extension is expected to start in spring 2011. Other donors to the project include investment banker John Studzinski, who has contributed £5m.
The new World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre will provide a major upgrade of facilities at the British Museum. Planning permission for the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre was granted by the London Borough of Camden in December 2009.
Lord Sainsbury, 82, a former chairman of the retail chain has recently donated £10m to a project extending Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum
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