My review of the new sculpture gallery at the V&A referred to scholarship as it is displayed, not to the museum's very laudable publications

Apollo, Oct, 2006 by John Kenworthy-Browne

My review of the new sculpture gallery at the V&A (APOLLO, June 2006) referred to scholarship as it is displayed, not to the museum's very laudable publications. In answer to Paul Williamson's letter (APOLLO, August 2006), I am unrepentant in preferring daylight to spotlight; in finding the new stands for busts ugly and ill placed, and the wall cases poorly designed. The showcases in the old gallery were well planned and judiciously placed. The new ones are mean and ill-lit; they offer severely restricted views, and are dominated by reflections.

This is not an opinion; it is fact.

Nothing in this gallery, however, equals the extraordinary display, in the British galleries, of the bust of Pope after Roubiliac and seven other portrait busts, which has remained unchallenged after five years. This must surely be the work of the designers, and not that of the curators.

John Kenworthy-Browne

London SW10