British Museum,LondonThere are many masterpieces among the treasures collected by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild in the 19th century and plenty of forgeries, too. It’s a shame they weren’t separated out in this spanking new display
A row of golden cups glitter in a glass case. All are magnificent. But which are genuine Renaissance masterpieces and which are fakes? The British Museum should offer a prize for guessing correctly without looking at the labels. The 19th-century art lover Baron Ferdinand Rothschild assembled a collection of sculpture, and miniatures,daggers, wooden carvings, and nautilus shell goblets and other miracles of craft at his home Waddesdon Manor that you might expect to see in some Habsburg cabinet of curiosities in Vienna. The British Museum,which inherited this scarce collection in 1898, has now recused it from an obscure hidden niche somewhere in its least visited galleries and created a sparkling, or glittering,dramatically lit treasury, where these wonders can be properly enjoyed and studied. Ever wanted to really regain to grips with the history of cup-making in 17th-century Nuremberg? Just make for Room 2A.
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Source: theguardian.com