Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London, opened in 1852 as the Museum of Manufacturers at Marlborough House. It originally contained a nucleus of contemporary objects of applied art bought from the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the instigation of the Prince Consort, and collections from the Government School of Design. The collection was soon expanded to include objects of all styles and periods, and the name was changed to Museum of Ornamental Art. In 1857 it was moved to its present site in South Kensington, to become part of the collective museum known as the South Kensington Museum. The present building, designed by Sir Aston Webb, was begun in 1899, at which time the museum was given its present name by Queen Victoria. When this building was opened in 1909, it became purely an art museum; the scientific collections were renamed the Science Museum. The museum embraces the Royal College of Art, an extensive art library, and the collections of the India Museum, which it absorbed. Its collections of paintings and sculpture (especially of early Italian works) are celebrated; other collections of note include ceramics, glass, jewelry, textiles, medieval enamels, ivories, miniatures, metalwork, engravings, and furniture. Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries are among its most famous treasures.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Museum of decorative arts in London. It was conceived by Prince Albert as a way to improve the standards of British design by making the finest models available for study. The core collection, consisting of objects purchased at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, was originally called the Museum of Ornamental Art and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1857. A new building was later designed by Sir Aston Webb, and the museum was renamed when Victoria laid the cornerstone in 1899; it was opened to the public by Edward VII in 1909. It houses vast collections of European sculpture, ceramics, furniture, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, and musical instruments from medieval times to the present; remarkable Chinese ceramics, jade, and sculpture; the premier collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture outside Italy; and the outstanding national collection of British watercolours, miniatures, prints, and drawings. It is regarded as the world's greatest decorative-arts museum. Its branch museums include the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood and the Wellington Museum. The Theatre Museum was also a branch until January 2007, when it was closed.