“The latest and already much-feted makeover, which has cost £61m, was not prompted by any major crisis, but is as radical as any of its precursors. A sleek five-storey structure with 39 new galleries designed by the architect Rick Mather has been slotted with surgical precision behind Charles Cockerell’s neoclassical temple of the arts, built in 1845 as a showcase for European sculpture and painting. It gives the museum a new heart and lungs.”