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Refurbished Royal Academy to open new space for Renaissance stars

Transformation: The RA’s facade as seen from Burlington Gardens: Hayes Davidson
Transformation: The RA’s facade as seen from Burlington Gardens: Hayes Davidson

A “more ambitious” Royal Academy of Arts will open next May with works by Renaissance Masters going on show in its new galleries.

The end of the refurbishment, which began in 2015 when the Burlington Gardens building closed and is expected to cost £56 million, will coincide with the RA’s 250th anniversary.

Architect Sir David Chipperfield’s design also includes a new lecture theatre and a bridge linking the Burlington House building to the separate site in Burlington Gardens. Sir David, who designed the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, said the plan was “a small amount of architecture for a profound result”.

RA artistic director Tim Marlow said: “The redevelopment gives us amazing flexibility and capacity to be much more ambitious with our public programming, our exhibitions, learning and debate.”

Among the works finding a new home from May 19 are the RA’s almost full-size 16th-century copy of The Last Supper by Leonardo pupil Giampietrino and Michelangelo’s marble sculpture of the Virgin And Child, both of which will be exhibited in the new Royal Academy Collection Gallery.

Former Turner Prize nominee Tacita Dean will be the first artist to show work in the new Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries in Burlington Gardens.

Michelangelo’s ‘Taddei Tondo’ at the Royal Academy of Arts (Royal Academy of Arts/Prudence Cumming Associates Limited)
Michelangelo’s ‘Taddei Tondo’ at the Royal Academy of Arts (Royal Academy of Arts/Prudence Cumming Associates Limited)

The redevelopment project, which included London’s largest temporary roof over Burlington Gardens to protect its façade, was funded by £12.7m of lottery money, private donors and a public appeal which raised the final £3 million. Charles Saumarez Smith, the RA’s secretary and chief executive, said the “physical transformation of the site” would “fundamentally change our almost 250-year-old institution”.

He added that it would be able to share “more of our mission to promote the understanding, appreciation and practice of art and architecture”.