World culture: “The Waddesdon Bequest. A Rothschild Renaissance” Exhibition at the British Museum

Marvel at the Renaissance treasures collected by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild MP (1839–1898), displayed in a beautiful new gallery at the British Museum.

The Waddesdon Bequest is a superb collection of nearly 300 objects, left to the Museum in 1898 by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild. It consists of exceptionally important and beautiful medieval and Renaissance pieces, as well as a number of 19th-century fakes. Together, they paint a fascinating picture of the development of the art market in the late 19th century.

Baron Ferdinand originally displayed the collection in the specially designed New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor, his mansion in Buckinghamshire, after which he named the Bequest