London's most elaborate light fitting is making a comeback. After 140 days of being closed, the V&A Museum is getting ready to open doors again from 6 August.
Finishing touches to their reopening prep include dusting off the incredible Dale Chihuly glass chandelier, the 27-foot centrepiece hanging above the museum's Grand Entrance. Made up of more than 1400 blown-glass and mould-blown elements, it's a writhing green and blue beauty of tentacles and bulbs and nipples and coils.
Because of the delicacy of the artwork, the chandelier has to be cleaned by specialist technicians using a scissor lift (and a duster).
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the cleaning: more gorgeous than it sounds...
The photos are a reminder of just how enormous the glass artwork is — seeing it from below as you enter the museum is impressive enough, but seeing a bloke with his fluffy duster next to it gives an entirely different sense of the chandelier's scale.
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The museum will be initially opening from Thursday to Sunday, from 6 August — you'll need to book a free timed entry slot. The V&A’s ground floor collection galleries will be open, including the Medieval & Renaissance Gallery, the Cast Courts, The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art and the Fashion Gallery, as well as the Europe 1600–1815 galleries on the museum's lower-ground floor.
You can book tickets here.
Photos by Tristan Fewings.
