National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing to reopen in May 2025 with fresh display and sponsorship
The National Gallery has confirmed that its Sainsbury Wing will reopen in May 2025 following more than two years of rebuilding works and will have a rehang of its free art galleries.
However, the new galleries will also be sponsored by a Hong Kong-based property investment firm that hardly anyone has heard of, CC Land. The company, originally a packaging and bag maker that pivoted to property in 2007 following a reverse takeover of a Chinese mainland property firm, has substantial investments in London but is unlikely to ever become a consumer-facing brand name.
The company’s investments include owning the Leadenhall Building in the City of London, a Paddington office block, the Thames City housing development in Nine Elms and the Whiteley development in Bayswater.
How a little-known property firm could become the sponsor of the National Gallery may lie in CC Land’s founder, who happens to be the Chinese billionaire Cheung Chung-kiu, and was recently reported to be the owner of the UK’s most expensive house, which overlooks Hyde Park.
When it opens next year, the National Gallery’s newly branded ‘C C Land: The Wonder of Art’ will display over 1,000 works as part of the Gallery’s free offering, with their permanent collection sitting alongside new loans.
The new layout will follow a broadly chronological arrangement, with medieval and Renaissance pictures displayed in the Sainsbury Wing and later paintings in the original Wilkins Building. It will include a range of more thematic interventions, such as ‘The Spectacle of Portraiture’, ‘Flowers’ and ‘Still Life’. Some newly restored works will also go back on display for the first time in several years.
A series of rooms will feature the work of individual artists, marking the first time the Gallery’s works by Titian and Claude Monet will each be brought together. Other artists in focus include Peter Paul Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt and Thomas Gainsborough. One new display focusses on Charles I (1600-1649) as a collector and includes major loans from the Royal Collection.
The rehang is already in progress with some rooms being closed between now and May 2025 to facilitate the moving of paintings and refurbishment of the galleries. This will be carried out in stages to ensure the Gallery can keep as many rooms open to the public for as much time as possible.
The completed redisplay will open on 10th May 2025.
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