London Museum Unveils Treasures

The Victoria and Albert Museum, known here as the V&A, is widely believed to house the finest collection of Italian sculpture outside of Italy. But its medieval and renaissance treasures come in many forms. Mark Jones is the museum's director. The V&A is lucky to have really one of the greatest collections of European art from the medieval and early modern period. It has great sculpture, but great works of art of all kinds, wonderful tapestries, wonderful textiles, gold and silver, enamels and jewellery. To illustrate how European art and design have changed across the centuries, the medieval and renaissance collections are now being displayed chronologically across ten new galleries. This is a bronze roundel that Donatello probably made while he was in Padua. This work by Donatello is a favourite of chief curator Peter Mature, not least because it came to the museum's attention more than 500 years after Donatello created it and it was being used as an ashtray. It's just one of many priceless treasures now on display. It really is an extraordinary collection that enables us to tell a richness of the story of artistic production and the culture in which it was produced. Creating ten new galleries was a challenge. It involved dismantling, cleaning and often restoring more than 1800 objects, but it also gave experts the chance to re-examine some treasures and consider factors that may have influenced their creation. We also want you to be able to unpeel the layers of meaning that they held for the people at the time, to say something about these wonderful artworks themselves, but also about the people who made and owned them and the culture to which they belonged. Some objects, such as the Beckett Casket, named after St Thomas Beckett, who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, take pride of place in individual displays, allowing visitors to get a 360 degree perspective. I think we've created a new portrait of European visual culture in the Medieval and Renaissance period. The project took almost a decade to complete and cost 53 million dollars. Most of the funds came from private donors. Entrance to the museum is free. Rachel Smalley for VOA News, London.