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First opened in 1873, the Victoria and Albert Museum´s Cast Courts were purpose built to house copies of architecture and sculpture from around the world. They contain some of the Museum´s largest objects, including casts of Trajan´s Column (shown in two halves) and the twelfth century Portico de la Gloria from the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela. Among the Museum´s most popular galleries, the Cast Courts are an extraordinary expression of Victorian taste, ambition and public spirit.

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First opened in 1873, the Victoria and Albert Museum´s Cast Courts were purpose built to house copies of architecture and sculpture from around the world. They contain some of the Museum´s largest objects, including casts of Trajan´s Column (shown in two halves) and the twelfth century Portico de la Gloria from the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela. Among the Museum´s most popular galleries, the Cast Courts are an extraordinary expression of Victorian taste, ambition and public spirit.
Published to celebrate the opening of the refurbished Cast Courts at the V&A, this book presents a fresh perspective on the Museum´s diverse collection of reproductions including plaster cats, electrotypes and photographs.

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Praise for The Cast Courts of the V&A: "The Cast Courts of the V&A have reopened with the triumphant restoration of the second gallery, allowing us to see both parts of this, quite the best bit of the museum, in its entirety". Evening Standard

"These loving educational artworks bear witness to a passion to know, to see, and most of all to understand the cultural heritage of Europe: to bring the continent´s artistic jewels to these rainy shores...Henry Cole hoped that visitors to the V&A would be inspired by its cast of David to go to Italy and see the original, so much more alive and powerful than any copy. The Guardian
"The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has added a new twist to an old classic." The Art Newspaper

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