The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It’s the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design. The museum houses a staggering collection of more than 4.5 million objects and is one of the major cultural institutions in the UK.

History

The Victoria and Albert Museum was officially opened by the Queen Victoria in June 1857 and its collection includes 5000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day. The museum exhibitions contain holdings of ceramics, textiles, costumes, glass, silver, jewellery, ironwork, medieval objects, furniture, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs.

Exhibitions

The Victoria & Albert Museum is divided into four collection departments and has 145 galleries, but considering the enormous number of the collections, only small percentage is on display. For example, the museum possesses a collection of 1130 British and 650 European oil paintings such as Rembrandt’s “The Departure of the Shunammite Woman”; Raphael’s “St Paul Preaching in Athens” or Botticelli’s “Portrait of a Lady known as Smeralda Brandini”. The museum also displays a notable collection of works such as Pietro Torrigiano’s coloured terracotta bust of Henry VII, the sculpture of Bashaw by Matthew Cotes Wyatt and the only complete Macclesfield Wine Set, dated to 1719-1720.  Moreover, the facility has an impressive and comprehensive collection of costumes, which contains more than 14000 outfits dating from 1600 to the present. Visitors can admire high-fashion garments worn by famous figures such as Audrey Hepburn, Ruth Ford or Gloria Guinness. Speaking of famous people, the museum also possesses diamond dress ornaments made for Catherine the Great, bracelet clasps worn by Marie Antoinette or the Beauharnais emerald necklace presented by Napoleon Bonaparte to his adopted daughter Hortense de Beauharnais. Apart from that, there is a respectable amount of books, textiles, musical instruments, metalwork, furniture, ceramics and glass from Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa.

See also British Museum.

The most interesting facts according to Connect-Click:

• The Victoria and Albert Theatre & Performance galleries hold the UK’s largest collection of materials about live performances in the UK. It covers music theatre, drama, music hall, rock, dance and pop music.
• The museum Education Department provides valuable information not only for casual visitors but also school groups, which are available during school holidays.

Address: Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL