Nigel Ip

Even for seasoned art historians, opportunities to visit museum storage facilities always feel like the highest of privileges. From this weekend onwards, the general public can finally experience it for themselves at the new V&A East Storehouse.

Three levels of displays will be accessible to the public, completely free, including marvellous vistas into the conservation lab and study centre. Visitors can order up to five objects to see in person from a collection of over 250,000, an experience that is normally impossible outside of prints and drawings.

Captions are kept fairly minimal, reserved mainly for introducing overarching themes. There are sections devoted to the acquisition process, fakes and forgeries, and also preventative conservation, offering real insight into the practical challenges of a working museum.

There really is no prescribed itinerary; just wander about and discover things organically while taking in the view. In fact, I accidentally stumbled into a room housing the world’s largest Picasso – the 1922 stage curtain for the Ballet Russes production of Le Train Bleu – an object I had been dreaming of seeing for about 12 years since my undergraduate presentation on Picasso and the Ballet Russes.

I am more than thrilled to see how the public will respond to this radical new experience in the UK. The only other example of this is the Depot of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, which opened to the public in 2021. More importantly, I am curious how other countries will start to approach making their own storage facilities accessible.

Exciting times are ahead, and this is just Phase One.

V&A East Storehouse opens to the public on 31 May 2025, https://www.vam.ac.uk/east