While you can often see items from the Cuming Museum on display in other museums, we also loan objects and artworks to organisations which, for various reasons, will not be putting them on display.
Our Hawaiian feather cape was originally collected on Captain Cook’s third voyage. It is kept at the British Museum’s stores as they have the right conditions for this very fragile object which is too delicate to display.
We also have two items on loan to the V&A, an embroidered coif (close fitting cap) and a pair of linen gloves, which are used in their textile history research.
Little was known about one of our early Italian Renaissance paintings until it was sent to the National Gallery for identification. On discovering that it is a rare example of work by the artist Nicholas di Pietro, the National Gallery and the Courtauld Institute agreed to clean and conserve the painting. The intention is to display the final result but in the meantime it continues to be stored by the National Gallery.
Research into objects and materials, as well as their conservation, helps build the body of knowledge we have about artefacts and culture. We will keep you updated, here on the blog, about future projects which see items from our collection going out on loan to other museums and organisations.
Southwark Heritage Blog 