Alistair Hardaker
Image: Gallery 71 of The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Galleries at the V&A, opening March 2026 © Secchi Smith, 2025
V&A South Kensington expands Gilbert Collection galleries from four to seven rooms, opening March 2026 with Citizens Design Bureau design.
The Victoria and Albert Museum will double the size of its galleries dedicated to the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection.
The space will expand from four to seven rooms, opening on 14 March 2026. The expansion will showcase masterpieces of silver, enamel, gold boxes, stone and glass micromosaics in the museum’s first double aspect gallery, overlooking both the John Madejski Garden and Exhibition Road Quarter.
The expanded galleries have been created by incorporating former office spaces and reopening historic brick archways. Sustainability measures include restoring original brickwork arches, reinstating Victorian solar shading and repurposing existing display cases.
New research into provenance will be presented in a dedicated room exploring Nazi and Soviet looting. This includes the redisplay of two pairs of silver-gilt gates from Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery.
The galleries will feature over 200 gold boxes in a dedicated room, displayed in the round to showcase three-dimensional craftsmanship. A new space for glass micromosaics will allow the majority of objects in the collection to be displayed together for the first time. Two large-scale views of Rome by Domenico Moglia, shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, will go on display at the V&A for the first time.
V&A conservators have employed laser cleaning techniques on a monumental table-top made by Michelangelo Barberi for Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. The museum describes this as world-pioneering conservation that will allow micromosaics to be seen in new detail.
Multisensory experiences will include touchable samples of rare stones and custom-blended scents. The museum has undertaken consultation to ensure inclusive design for neurodiverse visitors and those living with dementia.
Citizens Design Bureau, the practice founded by Katy Marks, has designed the new galleries in its first collaboration with the V&A. The transformation forms part of FuturePlan, the museum’s development programme that has transformed over 85 per cent of public spaces at South Kensington in the past 15 years.
Alice Minter, senior curator of the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, said the new galleries allow the V&A to “share the artistry of these extraordinary objects in more depth than ever before, while also asking important questions about their histories and journeys. It’s a chance for visitors to get closer to beauty, brilliance and craftsmanship on an intimate scale, but also to discover the personal stories of Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert as collectors.”
The project has been supported by the Gilbert Trust for the Arts, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Michael W. Garthwaite.
Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, said The Gilbert Galleries “honour the transformative philanthropy of Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert, celebrate some of the most exquisite works of art ever made, and now also explore the fascinating and sometimes complex histories behind them, and that the expansion project “combines cutting-edge design, pioneering conservation and the restoration of V&A South Kensington’s historic spaces to inspire creativity in every visitor.”
