Victoria and Albert Museum

With a permanent collection of more than 2.27 million items, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London—often referred to as the V&A—is the largest museum in the world devoted to decorative, applied, and design arts. It was established in 1852 and given the names Victoria and Albert.

Because of its connections to Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial, and the significant cultural organizations with which he was affiliated, the V&A is situated in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in a region known as "Albertopolis." These include Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, and others. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport is a non-departmental public organization that sponsors the museum. Like other national museums in Britain, admission is free.

The museum has the greatest collection of post-classical sculpture in the entire world, and its collection of art from the Italian Renaissance is the largest outside of Italy. Art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea, and the Islamic world can be found in the Asian art departments. The Islamic collection is one of the biggest in the Western world, and the East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork. It is one of the biggest museums in the world overall.

Established: 1852; 170 years ago
Location: Cromwell Road, Kensington and Chelsea, London, SW7, United Kingdom
Collection size: 2,278,183 items in 145 galleries
Visitors: 3,992,198 (2019)
Website: www.vam.ac.uk