UK Billionaires Pledge £300M to National Gallery in One Day

Two phone calls in September changed everything for London's National Gallery, which had waited nearly 200 years for a transformative gift. Instead of one massive donation, it received two on the same day, each worth £150 million.

Tech investor Sir Michael Moritz and the Rausing family foundation both pledged these record amounts. The money will fund a new wing and expand the gallery's collection at a time when government arts funding faces serious cuts.

These aren't unusual gifts anymore. The benchmark for British super-donors has leaped from £1 million to £100 million, with at least ten people hitting that mark in recent years.

Moritz started as a journalist before writing an early history of Apple that launched his investing career. He joined California's Sequoia Capital and spotted the potential in Google, PayPal, YouTube, and LinkedIn before anyone else knew their names.

Now 71, Moritz and his wife Harriet Heyman are giving away much of their £4.43 billion fortune through their Crankstart Foundation. The foundation supports students from disadvantaged backgrounds at Oxford and funds medical research, environmental causes, and housing.

The National Gallery's other £150 million came from Julia Rausing's trust. She married into the Tetra Pak packaging fortune and spent her final decade giving away more than £330 million before dying from cancer in 2024.

Last week brought more good news. The National Trust received £10 million from private equity boss Humphrey Battcock, the largest cash donation in its 131-year history.

Younger billionaires are joining in too. Igor and Anastasia Bukhman, both 43, pledged £100 million for type 1 diabetes research after their daughter Sonya was diagnosed at age three. Oxford University received £10 million from the couple to create a center of excellence searching for a cure.

The Ripple Effect

This giving surge comes from a fundamental shift in British wealth. The Sunday Times counted just 25 UK billionaires in 2000. By 2022, that number had jumped to 177.

The difference? Most made their money instead of inheriting it. Old aristocratic families passed wealth through generations, but self-made entrepreneurs built fortunes and chose to give them away.

City traders Greg Skinner and Suneil Setiya created the Quadrature Climate Foundation in 2019. It has already spent or pledged more than £1.1 billion to 280 organizations fighting climate change, handing out over £200 million in 2024 alone.

The arts, medical research, environmental protection, and education are all benefiting from this generosity wave. Public funding can't keep pace with needs, but private donors are stepping up to fill the gap with gifts that would have seemed impossible just a decade ago.

Britain's wealthiest are proving that making a fortune and giving it away can both be revolutionary acts.