 In the post @-@ war years , acquisitions have become increasingly difficult for the National Gallery as the prices for Old Masters – and even more so for the Impressionists and Post @-@ impressionists – have risen beyond its means . Some of the Gallery 's most significant purchases in this period would have been impossible without the major public appeals backing them , including The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci ( bought in 1962 ) and Titian ’ s Death of Actaeon ( 1972 ) . The Gallery 's purchase grant from the government was frozen in 1985 , but later that year it received an endowment of £ 50 million from Sir Paul Getty , enabling many major purchases to be made . In April 1985 Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover and his brothers , the Hon. Simon Sainsbury and Sir Timothy Sainsbury , had made a donation that would enable the construction of the Sainsbury Wing . 
