Revealing the untold story of the walrus and an English treasure at risk of being sent to the US
New research is shedding fresh light on one of Britain’s most important yet least well-known works of art.
An ultra-rare medieval English ivory sculpture is in danger of being exported to the US – and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is now appealing to the public for £2m to keep the 830-year-old masterpiece in the UK.
The museum believes that the Deposition of Christ (or Deposition from the Cross) was originally part of a much larger ivory artwork, and is therefore appealing to the public not only for funds to help keep it in the UK, but also for information about where other fragments of the original priceless masterpiece might be.
Made of walrus tusk ivory, the original artwork would almost certainly have consisted of around seven scenes from Christ’s final days: including the Last Supper, Judas betraying him in the Garden of Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the removal of Christ from
