Victoria & Albert Museum

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Michael Archer, member of a golden age of curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who has died, aged 85

For more than 20 years, Archer enriched the ceramics department of the V&A with important acquisitions and research on glass, pottery and the tin-glazed earthenware on which he was a world authority

‘It’s time to ditch the culture war rhetoric’

The next UK prime minister should abandon the war on "woke" and return to nuanced debate

India and Pakistan turn 75: exhibitions on independence and partition to see around the world

From Kolkata to Chicago, here are 11 shows that deal with the many histories of nationhood and freedom in the subcontinent

London museums close galleries as temperatures reach record high

Staff union claims it pressured the V&A and British Museum to take special measures

Peter Brook, a giant of international theatre whose stage work moved in sympathy with the visual arts, has died, aged 97

Brook's influential "white-cube" 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and his epic 1985 realisation of the Sanskrit epic The Mahābhārata find echoes in art history

Victoria & Albert Museum director says it is time to change UK law that stops museums from ‘disposing’ of works

Tristram Hunt aims to start a “conversation” about the act next year, arguing that some items should be allowed to be restituted or deaccessioned

Victoria and Albert Museum returns—and reattaches—a third-century marble head of Greek god taken from Turkey

The head of Eros—which has been held by the London institution for 90 years—has been reunited with its sarcophagus at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum

Historic Beirut house damaged in city's devastating port explosion is reconstructed at Victoria & Albert Museum in London

The work charts an architect’s personal crusade to restore one of the finest remaining examples of Ottoman-Venetian homes in Old Beirut.

Activist group’s film projection on Victoria and Albert Museum façade raises concerns about trustees’ politics

The ethics of the South Kensington museum are in question after hosting Conservative Party fundraiser

Russian Fabergé treasures from V&A show still being held in UK because of sanctions over Ukraine

Among the pieces are the first Fabergé Egg and a golden cigarette box made for the Rothschild family, which were both acquired by the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg

Digitising the Bayeux Tapestry: Victoria and Albert Museum will work with French city to research famous Medieval work

London museum signs memorandum of understanding with Bayeux city officials to develop curatorial and scientific exchange

Cambodia urges UK museums to investigate and return looted treasures allegedly handled by dealer Douglas Latchford

British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum now under scrutiny of Cambodian government

What will happen to sanctioned Russian oligarch’s Fabergé treasure, now V&A's show has closed?

The return of the Easter Egg on loan to the UK from Viktor Vekselberg’s Panamanian company could well now be complicated

UK sanctions Russian oligarch behind major Fabergé egg loan to V&A exhibition

Ukrainian-born mining billionaire Viktor Vekselberg lent the first Imperial Easter egg to the London museum through his foundation

Saving the art of Palestinian textiles: West Bank museum and V&A join forces to create new conservation studio

Palestinian Museum is using a $480,000 grant from the Aliph Foundation to document and conserve traditional embroidered dresses known as thobes

Back to normal: London's Victoria and Albert Museum resumes pre-Covid opening hours

From next month, the institution will be open for seven days a week again and timed tickets for general admission will also be dropped

Loansnews

What will happen to Russia's treasures on loan in London and Paris?

Imperial Fabergé eggs and Impressionist masterpieces are some of the works currently in shows in Europe

Business as usual for European museums operating in China, despite genocide ruling

A London panel has assembled the largest cache of evidence on the concentration camps in Xinjiang, but museums will not say if they have examined it

Podcastspodcast

Big money, new collectors: the low-down on the New York auctions

Plus, Fabergé in London and a rediscovered Dürer

Hosted by Ben Luke, Aimee Dawson and Martin Bailey. with guest speaker Anna Brady. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack. With Henrietta Bentall
Sponsored byChristie's
Museumscomment

In returning an ancient gold ewer to Turkey, the UK's Gilbert Trust made the right decision

The Anatolian artefact had been on long-term loan to London's Victoria & Albert Museum, although not on display. Restitution is a complex issue, but in this case it was the right move

Ancient gold ewer returned to Turkey after V&A expert links it to illicit antiquities trade

The piece was part of the Gilbert Collection which is not bound by the same legal restrictions around deaccessioning as the London museum

Yinka Shonibare sculptures sold to fund fellowship for Black and POC curators at V&A East

It's time to "to grasp the nettle", says the museum's director Gus Casely-Hayford of the Frieze x Deutsche Bank Emerging Curators Fellowship

London’s Museum of Childhood to be renamed the Young V&A following £13m renovation

East End institution will no longer cater to adults “revelling in nostalgia” and rather be focussed on those aged up to 14 years old

V&A's groundbreaking British design exhibition 75 years on—what can a post-pandemic UK learn from this historic show?

A prioritisation of design and a harnessing of public spirit are vital in the face of challenges posed by Brexit and Covid-19

South Korea's rapid rise to global pop cultural dominance will be explored in new Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition

Hallyu! The Korean Wave takes place in 2022 along with Beatrix Potter celebration and showcase of African fashion

Museumscomment

One of us or one of them? A long view of the appointment of George Osborne as chair of the British Museum

The former chancellor's instalment echoes the selection of Lord Armstrong as chair of the V&A, which had serious consequences for the museum

Opening of London’s V&A East Museum delayed again because of pandemic

The Victoria and Albert Museum outpost is now due to open in 2025 but its open storage space is still on track for 2024

Cash-strapped museums unable to stop treasures from leaving UK

Export licences likely to be granted on Italian roundel and German reliquary as institutions struggle with the fallout of the pandemic

Visitor figures: how many people are actually returning to London museums post-lockdown?

We asked English institutions to provide figures for the four-week period from 17 May to gauge current demand