The V&A’s new £30million Medieval & Renaissance Galleries opens on Wednesday 2 December. The 10 galleries, occupying an entire wing of the Museum, house one of the world’s most remarkable collections of treasures from the period, including the Becket Casket, Gothic altarpieces and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.

The galleries have been funded by a £9.75m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) as well as private donations and include important loans from the British Library.

Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: "These wonderful new galleries are a very welcome addition to one of London's most popular museums. Spanning over 1,000 years of history – from the exquisite Becket Casket to the magnificent Santa Chiara Chapel – the V&A tells the stories of medieval and Renaissance art and design with great imagination and verve. HLF is particularly proud to have supported this redevelopment which will attract a whole new set of fans to the subject, giving people a much deeper understanding of how this fascinating period sits within the complexities of world history."

Mark Jones, Director of the V&A, added: “The Medieval & Renaissance Galleries will be among the most magnificent galleries in the V&A and mark the culmination of nine years of rapid modernisation to renew and restore the Museum. The new galleries present many of the world’s greatest treasures in beautifully designed galleries that we hope will inspire all our visitors.”

The galleries have taken seven years to create and are the V&A’s largest project since the opening of the British Galleries in 2001. They mark the completion of the V&A’s £120m transformation under the first phase of the Museum’s ambitious Future Plan.

The Medieval & Renaissance Galleries for the first time present the collections in continuous displays to tell the story of European art and design from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Renaissance period. The V&A is redisplaying more than 1800 objects from the period 300 to 1600.

Further Information  

Katie Owen, HLF Press Office on 020 7591 6036 / 07973 613 820 or katieo@hlf.org.uk

V&A’s Press Office on 020 7942 2502.