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Secrets Of The Museum – TV Review
Kay Carson • 8 February 2020
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is an extraordinary repository of all things creative. It houses 2.3 million objects, each of which occupies its own special place on a 5,000-year timeline of art and design history.
Every year, the V&A’s displays fascinate around four million visitors. As with most museums, however, only a fraction of the collections is on view. Sometimes an object is in storage not through choice, but because it is simply too fragile to see the light of day.
Secrets of the Museum
(BBC Two, Thursdays) offers a behind-the-scenes look at the painstakingly detailed and dedicated work of curators, conservators and technicians who research, restore and preserve some of the nation’s most treasured artefacts.
Fans of The Repair Shop
should enjoy this six-part series which demonstrates that it is not enough when researching an object to examine it in isolation – it is equally vital to find out about the people who commissioned, made, owned, used and loved it; only then do we discover the whole story.
Take Pumpie the Elephant, for example: at first glance, a one-eared, one-eyed, moth-eaten toy with a torn trunk. During his restoration, viewers learned that he was made 120 years ago, from household odds and ends, by the Cattley family of West
London, who loved him so much he went on holiday with them, and often featured in photographs and portraits painted by one of the children.
Next, an 18th century snuff box, made from a 17th century watch case. A lid had been attached, inset with a portrait miniature – the equivalent of carrying a loved one’s photo on a smartphone today. Expensive to make, these tiny portraits were the preserve of the wealthy. Without an inscription on the painting, there was no information on the artist or the sitter, so curators researched portraits of society ladies of the time to find a match… and found one: aristocrat Lady Frances Carteret.
The first episode alone served up a range of objects spanning 400 years, the most recent consisting of 266 items in Kylie’s portable dressing room, lifted lock, stock and barrel from Wembley Stadium and offered by the singer to the V&A as a time capsule of her 2007 tour.
Importantly, Secrets of the Museum
opens the door to a world of specialists and, with any luck, will serve to boost interest in museums sector careers. At the very least, it makes for an enjoyable and informative six hours of television.