Anabelle Selldorf is carrying out the revamp of the iconic work of Venturi and Scott Brown

If buildings could speak, would they always object to their demolition? In the case of the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing, now undergoing a controversial redevelopment, a voice from the grave heartily approves of the arrival of the wrecking ball.

It has emerged that, during the demolition of a pair of columns in the gallery’s foyer last year, a letter from the major donor, Lord Sainsbury, was discovered in a plastic folder, hidden inside one of the columns. The note outlines his fierce objection to the existence of these false pillars, which served no structural purpose, and expresses his delight at their removal.

“If you have found this note,” says Sainsbury in his letter, dated 26 July 1990, and typed entirely in capital letters on his supermarket’s headed paper, “you must be engaged in demolishing one of the false columns that have been placed in the foyer of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery...[+]