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V&A acquires £2m medieval carving of the Deposition from the Cross

Image: Deposition from the Cross (around 1190-1200) (c) DCMS

The sculpture will enter the V&A’s permanent collection and return to public display in V&A South Kensington’s Medieval and Renaissance galleries later this year

The V&A has successfully raised £2m to acquire a 12th-century walrus ivory carving, depicting the Deposition of Christ from the Cross.

Dated to about 1190-1200, it is likely to have been made in York, North Yorkshire, and depicts the moment in the story of the Passion in which Christ’s body is lifted from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea.

It had been reported that the ‘Deposition from the Cross’ sculpture was to be sold privately by Sotheby’s to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than $2.5 million, on the condition that it would be granted an export license.

Instead, a temporary export bar was placed on the object last November by DCMS, allowing the V&A time to raise its own capital.

The Deposition from the Cross, Walrus Ivory Carving, Northern England, probably York, ca. 1190-1200. Courtesy of the V&A

The £2m raise comprises a £700,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and an undisclosed grant from Art Fund, as part of a national public fundraising appeal which also included support from grant-making organisations, individuals, members of the V&A Director’s Circle and Young Patrons’ Circle, V&A Members and those who left a legacy gift in their Will.

The V&A described the carving as “heralded as one of the finest and most important examples of English Romanesque ivory carving to survive today.”

It will enter the V&A’s permanent collection and return to public display in V&A South Kensington’s Medieval and Renaissance galleries later this year, having previously been on long-term loan to the museum for 40 years from 1982 to 2022.

It will be reunited with the only known surviving piece believed to be of the same ensemble, a fragmentary ivory carving of Judas at the Last Supper, which is reported to have been discovered in Wakefield in the 18th century and given to the V&A in 1949.

Together, both carvings would have likely once formed part of a larger work showing scenes from the Passion of Christ, the V&A said. At V&A South Kensington, the two pieces were exhibited side-by-side for decades.

Dr. Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, called the sculpture an “elemental object of English art”, adding “I am hugely grateful to everyone who so generously contributed to secure this wondrous piece for the national collection.”