National Gallery Company
W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, which was to be the authorized owner of works meant for the gallery. In 1930–1931, the Trust made its first main acquisition, 21 paintings from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg as a part of the Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings, together with such masterpieces as Raphael’s Alba Madonna, Titian’s Venus with a Mirror, and Jan van Eyck’s Annunciation.
The first part, the East Wing Project designed by Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones, opened to the general public in 2004. This offered a new floor level entrance from Trafalgar Square, named in honour of Sir Paul Getty. The main entrance was also refurbished, and reopened in September 2005. Possible future projects embody a “West Wing Project” roughly symmetrical with the East Wing Project, which would provide a future floor stage entrance, and the general public opening of some small rooms on the far eastern … Read More