Soane's Museum fundraising given a boost

Bloomberg

Charitable trusts endowed by the late Simon Sainsbury and Paul Getty are giving 1.1 million pounds ($2.2 million) to the Sir John Soane's Museum, bringing the London attraction closer to its 6 million pound fundraising goal after the U.K. Lottery refused a grant request.

The Monument Trust, funded by Sainsbury, has pledged 1 million pounds toward the museum's planned revamp, which would open up rooms and boost visitor access, the museum said in a release issued for a press presentation. The J. Paul Getty Jr. Charitable Trust has given 125,000 pounds for stained-glass refurbishment.

“It may not be large and trendy, but this most British and eccentric of all house museums has a special place in the hearts of all who know it,” the Soane's director, Tim Knox, said in the press release. “We still need help” . . . . .

Soane was architect of the original Bank of England building and of the Dulwich Picture Gallery as well as a Royal Academy architecture professor. The house -- a small maze of rooms with lunettes, concave mirrors and skylights -- has treasures worthy of the Louvre: the engraved sarcophagus of Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I, Hogarth's “A Rake's Progress” series of paintings and pictures by Canaletto.