V&A Dundee tops US newspaper list

DUNDEE’S V&A has been named as one of the best new museums anywhere in the world by one of the leading newspapers in the United States.

The Los Angeles Times, the fourthbiggest selling paper in the US, put the museum, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, at the top of its list of “new museums to explore” in 2018.

It came ahead of Seattle’s new Nordic Heritage Museum and the South Carolina Historical Society Museum in Charleston.

The article also ranked the V&A higher than the Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza in Egypt, which will be home to King Tutankhamun and other mummies, as well as an 83-tonne statue of pharaoh Ramses II and 100,000 ancient Egyptian artefacts.

The fifth museum on the list was the Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo.

The article stated: “London’s V&A Museum, once called the Victoria and Albert, traces its roots back to 1851.

“This year, V&A Dundee will open on September 15 on the east coast of Scotland as the first satellite museum to bear the name.

“The remarkable building made with more than 2,000 cast-stone panels looks like a stylised ship floating on the River Tay. Scottish design — architecture, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and more — will be the focus.”

It comes after both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal cited the V&A as they named Dundee among the top destinations to visit in the world in 2018.

Construction work on the museum started in 2015 and the exterior has been completed with work now under way to fit out the interior.

As well as two galleries devoted to the history of Scottish design, it will also welcome touring exhibitions.

Ocean Liners: Speed and Style is currently on display at the V&A London, but will transfer to Dundee for the opening.

Philip Long, director of V&A Dundee, said: “It’s fantastic to be on this list.”