Why wasn’t the Queen invited to the opening of Dundee’s new V&A?
ITS renowned counterpart in London is one of the world’s leading art and design museums and was opened by the great-great-grandmother of the Queen.
But its fledgling off-shoot in Dundee is to be denied a Royal opening despite bearing the same name – the V&A – in honour of Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert.
It is understood an official launch presided over by a member of the Royal Family was vetoed in favour of a free two-day festival boasting a set by rock group Primal Scream.
While Nicola Sturgeon visited the museum after it opened earlier this month, the Mail has been told there are no plans for any Royal to officiate at a formal opening of the £80.1million building.
A spokesman for the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh said the guest list had been a matter for the V&A Dundee.
One Royal source said the Queen ‘hadn’t been on the invite list’, while another source close to the Royal Family in Scotland said: ‘The question of why the Royals were not invited is a perfectly valid one.’
A third insider said: ‘The lack of a Royal opening is strange, given the Royal heritage of the parent institution. We don’t know why this has happened.’
The Queen was in residence at Balmoral when the V&A Dundee opened its doors to the public for the first time, on September 15.
Conservative North East MSP Bill Bowman said: ‘Given the regal heritage of the V&A, there may be questions raised as to why there has not been a Royal opening.
‘I am sure people in Dundee and Tayside would be delighted to welcome a member of the Royal Family to mark the opening of this Scottish arm of this UK institution.
‘However, they need to be invited and that doesn’t seem to have happened, for whatever reason.’
A spokesman for the V&A Dundee said no Royal opening was ‘currently scheduled’ but could not explain why, while Dr Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A in London, referred our inquiries to the museum in Dundee.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it was not involved in plans for a Royal opening, while Dundee City Council also referred our inquiries to V&A Dundee.
The city’s council leader John Alexander said the launch was intended to be ‘inclusive’ and that he was proud the first three people to cross the threshold were young people who had been in care.
He said: ‘That to me is the most important opening that we could have had.’
On September 14, Primal Scream headlined a festival to celebrate the opening of the museum at the start of a two-day festival in the city’s Slessor Gardens. Miss Sturgeon was shown around the museum that day, when she described it as ‘absolutely stunning, breath-taking’.
V&A Dundee is expected to attract 500,000 visitors from around the world in its first year and generate tens of millions of pounds for the local economy.