Tate has announced that the recent £260 million extension of the Tate Modern, The Switch House, is to be renamed the Blavatnik Building, The Art Newspaper reports. Following a more-than £50m donation, the building will be named after American businessman Len Blavatnik, whose contribution is believed to be the largest-ever financial gift given to a UK museum. The donation was originally pledged in 2011, which helped Tate to secure support from other donors for the extension. Blavatnik, who emigrated to the US from the Soviet union in 1978, made his money in the Russian oil industry. The family’s foundation, the Blavatnik Family Trust has gifted money to other cultural institutions including the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Museum and Royal Academy of Arts (all London), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).
Nicholas Serota, who will be stepping down as the Tate director at the end of May, says that he is ‘delighted the new building now bears his name’.
5 May 2017
