The V&A – A Prayer Not To Screw It Up

As the Victoria & Albert Museum prepares to redo its Medieval and Renaissance galleries, one critic hopes planners don’t botch the job like they did the new British galleries a few years ago. “If the faults of the British galleries were caused through inadvertence (by mistake, a remarkable bust is shown looking into a corner) that would be bad enough. But most of these faults are faults of policy: the downgrading of the individual object – whether in the fine or the decorative arts – is a matter of policy. It must have been, to be so systematic. So let’s hope the policy has already had its day.”