The Waddesdon Bequest: an obsession for collecting

Discover the story of how Baron Ferdinand Rothschild collected nearly 300 exceptionally important and beautiful medieval and Renaissance objects. Originally housed in the Smoking Room of Waddesdon Manor, the superb collection was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 and is now housed in a new gallery funded by The Rothschild Foundation (Room 2a). This film includes contributions from Baron Ferdinand’s relatives Hannah Rothschild and Jacob Rothschild, along with artist Grayson Perry, artist and author Edmund de Waal, British Museum Curator of the gallery Dora Thornton, Head of Collections at Waddesdon Manor Pippa Shirley, and British Museum Director Neil MacGregor, who talk about their favourite pieces. The Waddesdon Bequest is a collection of medieval and Renaissance treasures bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild in 1898. It was redisplayed in a new gallery in June 2015: http://ow.ly/O3Nlu