Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A or VAM) in the United Kingdom is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts, design, and historical craft traditions—with a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects housed across 6 sites. It was founded in 1852 as the Museum of Manufactures, and subsequently renamed in honour of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The V&A's main London site is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in an area known as "Albertopolis" due to the many cultural institutions, monuments, and other features that bear Prince Albert's name, or with which he was associated. In addition to the Victoria and Albert Museum, these include the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Imperial College, Royal Albert Hall, Prince Consort Road, and the Albert Memorial.

The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is "a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity"; its stated goal is "to champion design and creativity in all its forms, advance cultural knowledge, and inspire makers, creators and innovators". As with other national British museums, entrance is free.

In addition to its South Kensington site, the Victoria and Albert Museum has the following venues: * V&A Dundee in Dundee, Scotland (opened in 2018) * V&A East Museum in Stratford, London (opened 2026) * V&A East Storehouse in Stratford, London (opened 2025) * V&A Wedgwood Collection in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent (formerly the Wedgwood Museum, acquired in 2014) * Young V&A in Bethnal Green, London (formerly the Museum of Childhood)

The main London site covers and has 145 galleries. "Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day" and includes pieces from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asiaincluding works from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea, and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are particularly strong in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world.

The museum holds one of the largest collections of post-classical sculpture, with its collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture being the largest outside of Italy, however, the art of antiquity in most areas is not the V&A's primary focus. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, jewellery, silver, metalwork, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints, drawings, and photographs are also amongst the world's largest and most comprehensive.

Overall, the Victoria and Albert is one of the largest museums in the world. Provided by Wikipedia