The Oriental arms & armour collection at the V&A?

Aqtai · 4th September 2005, 07:48 PM

Hi all,

I was in london today on family business, and I decided to pop into the Victoria and Albert Museum to have a look at their Oriental weapons and armour collection as I have not been there since 1999. I noticed the Museum was undergoing a major refurbishment and I couldn't find the Arms galleries anywhere. I asked a couple of members of staff and was given two different answers:
a) The collection has been split up and redistributed into the other collections.
b) There isn't any place for it anymore and it will remain in storage.

I noticed on the V&A website the refurbishment is called FuturePlan and no mention is made of the arms collection.

Apart from feeling disappointed, I'm also rather upset that a major collection of Oriental weaponry is no longer accessible to the public.

Does anyone have any information about the fate of the V&A armour collection?

BTW there is still a small collection of Indian weapons and armour in the South Asia section and I quite enjoyed that part of it.

4th September 2005, 07:48 PM	#1
Aqtai Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Merseyside, UK Posts: 222	The Oriental arms & armour collection at the V&A? Hi all, I was in london today on family business, and I decided to pop into the Victoria and Albert Museum to have a look at their Oriental weapons and armour collection as I have not been there since 1999. I noticed the Museum was undergoing a major refurbishment and I couldn't find the Arms galleries anywhere. I asked a couple of members of staff and was given two different answers: a) The collection has been split up and redistributed into the other collections. b) There isn't any place for it anymore and it will remain in storage. I noticed on the V&A website the refurbishment is called FuturePlan and no mention is made of the arms collection. Apart from feeling disappointed, I'm also rather upset that a major collection of Oriental weaponry is no longer accessible to the public. Does anyone have any information about the fate of the V&A armour collection? BTW there is still a small collection of Indian weapons and armour in the South Asia section and I quite enjoyed that part of it.