Museums and Institutions

THE architect of the newly built British Library is to donate 600 art works collected over 50 years to the nation. Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson will hand over the gift to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester via the National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund), the UK’s leading independent art charity.

“COINS transmit the image of a ruler far more widely than any other medium available before photography.” Thus the blurb trumpeting the exhibition in the British Museum of portraits on coins.

Five early 18th century ivory relief portraits by celebrated carver David Le Marchand stolen from the Art Gallery of Ontario on January 17 have been recovered.

2004 is shaping up well for arts publishing, and publishers of books which cover the genre also reported excellent sales last year, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Here, the Antiques Trade Gazette takes a look at some of the books on offer this year, many of which will be reviewed.

ISLAMIC ART: A MAJOR donation hase been given to the Victoria and Albert Museum, to enable it to completely refurbish its Islamic Gallery, home to the famous Ardabil carpet and many other treasures from the Middle East.

Funded by the Friends of the British Museum, the Caryatid Fund and the National Art Collections Fund, the British Museum has acquired an extremely rare Roman fluorspar cup from the 1st century AD. The total cost of the antiquity, bought from a leading London dealer, was £150,000.

There is an impressively international roll-call of galleries exhibiting at Collect, the new fair for contemporary objects which takes place at the Victoria & Albert Museum from February 20-24.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Trust Library has launched an adopt-a-book appeal fronted by Antiques Roadshow bibliophile Clive Farahar.

A French Foundation devoted to Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) has finally been launched, ten years after his widow Annette called for its creation in her will. The French government gave the Fondation Alberto & Annette Giacometti the green light on December 9.

A National Art Collections Fund grant of £37,500 has helped Ely’s Stained Glass Museum acquire an important early 13th century French stained glass panel of the bust of a king.

Gothic Art for England 1400-1547, edited by Richard Marks and Paul Williamson, published by V&A Publications. ISBN 1851774017. £45 hb

It is now 15 years since the Royal Academy mounted their landmark exhibition, The Age of Chivalry, covering the arts in Plantagenet England from 1200-1400. This week the Victoria and Albert Museum launches its chronological successor – Gothic: Art For England, covering the later medieval period from 1400-1547.

Pre-Raphaelite Art in the Victoria & Albert Museum, by Suzane Fagence Cooper, published by V&A Publications. ISBN 1851773932 £30hb (pub. Oct 9).

CULTURE secretary Tessa Jowell has extended her deadline for deciding on what sum the National Gallery should pay for The Madonna of the Pinks.

Illuminated Manuscripts and their Makers, by Rowan Watson, published by V&A Publications. ISBN 1851773851 £30hb

Christie’s have helped negotiate the sale to the Victoria and Albert Museum of the Castlereagh gold inkstand created by Paul Storr and Philip Rundell for the British diplomat Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) in 1818.

Art Deco 1910-1939, edited by Tim Benton, Charlotte Benton and Ghislaine Wood, published by V&A Publications. ISBN 1851773876 £40 hardback ISBN 1851773886 £29.95 soft back.

COLLECT is the simple name of a new annual event to be launched at the V&A in London in February next year. The Crafts Council say it will be the premier showcase for unique and limited edition contemporary objects.

The National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund), has offered a £400,000 grant to the National Gallery in their bid to secure Raphael’s The Madonna of the Pinks for the collection. The painting, sold by the Duke of Northumberland to the Getty Museum in California, is subject to a temporary export bar of one month, with a potential further six months extension, to give the National Gallery the chance to raise the £29.5m needed to keep it in the country.

The Print in Italy: 1550-1620 by Michael Bury, published by the British Museum Press in September 2001. ISBN 0714126292 £35pb