Renaissance silverware collection worth tens of millions of pounds goes on display

Ashmolean Museum

wikipedia-Merlin Cooper

A collection of Renaissance silverware collection, which was donated to Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum by the late art collector Michael Wellby, goes on display in the museum's West Meets East gallery. 

The collection of nearly 500 items worth tens of millions of pounds was described as the most important gift to a British museum for over a century. 

"The Ashmolean is extremely grateful to Michael and his family," said professor Tim Wilson, keeper of the department of western art. "This is the most important accession of objects of this sort to any UK museum since the bequest of objects from Waddesdon Manor by Ferdinand Rothschild to the British Museum in 1898."