Pink Floyd knocks Bowie off top of charts to become V&A’S greatest hit
PINK FLOYD have produced a record for the V&A as the museum welcomed a new high in visitor numbers last year and bucked a downward trend among London’s landmark institutions.
The V&A’S Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains show became the most popular music exhibition ever staged by the museum, attracting 352,189 visitors. It surpassed the 312,000 who flocked to the David Bowie Is exhibition in 2013. And the overall figure of 4.4 million people passing through the V&A in the past 12 months represents the highest total since it was founded in 1852.
The Pink Floyd show featured everything from a replica of the Bedford van in which the band toured in their early days to giant stage props and holographic artwork, accompanied by music played on Bluetooth headphones.
The exhibition was also the main driver of growth for the V&A’S merchandise sales in 2017-18, which rose 17per cent to £5.6million. The museum shop collection included £25 Pink Floyd T-shirts and £15 toy pigs, a reference to Animals, the band’s 1977 album.
Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, unveiled the figures at the launch of the museum’s annual report.
Last month, the British Museum disclosed that its visitor numbers had fallen from 6.2million to 5.8million, a decrease mirrored by other institutions across London including the National Gallery and Tate Modern. Other popular V&A shows last year included a celebration of the fashion designs of Balenciaga, which was visited by 272,564 people.
An exhibition devoted drew 281,210 visitors.
The museum has been staging shows devoted to pop and rock stars since featuring Kylie Minogue in 2007.
Its jewellery gallery currently exhibits a spectacular butterfly ring lent by Beyoncé alongside gems previously to plywood worn by Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great. Mr Hunt joked that beginning a note of thanks with the words “Dear Beyoncé” made it “one of the best letters I have written at the V&A”.
He put the record year down to the success of the Pink Floyd show and to the new entrance on Exhibition Road, a £54.5million development opened last summer. Previously, people were put off by the imposing 19th century doorway on Cromwell Road, in South Kensington, London, Mr Hunt said.