Billionaire invests in Turner’s old art school
THE FREE school at which the painters JMW Turner and John Constable studied has become the beneficiary of a £10m gift from the heir to a more prosaic art form.
Hans Rausing, the Swedish philanthropist whose father founded the Tetra Pak food packaging empire, bestowed the cash on the postgraduate art school at the Royal Academy, which is one of the oldest in Britain and celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.
Mr Rausing, a billionaire who is now based in the UK, is head of the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust charitable fund, which he set up with his wife, whom he married in 2014.
His first wife, Eva Rausing, was discovered at their Belgravia home in 2012 in an advanced state of decomposition after having died from cocaine abuse.
He admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of her body, as well as driving a vehicle while unfit through drugs, and was given two suspended sentences.
He said the money to the Academy art school “allows for the restoration of the fabric of the building and its survival for future generations of artists”.
The school, whose other alumni include William Blake, Richard Hamilton and Sir Anthony Caro, gives up to 17 artists each year the opportunity to enrol in a free, three-year, postgraduate programme.
Its president, Christopher Le Brun, said: “One of the founding purposes of the Royal Academy was to provide a school of art to train the next generation of artists. 250 years later, the Royal Academy Schools is one of the best in the world.
“This major gift from Julia and Hans Rausing will ensure its success for the next 250 years.”
The gift will see the Academy’s school buildings, designed by Sir David Chipperfield, renamed The Julia and Hans Rausing Campus.
This major gift will ensure the school’s success for the next 250 years.
Christopher Le Brun, president of the Royal Academy.