Celebrating the new Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Iran Heritage Foundation and Victoria & Albert Museum.

Julius Baer (Middle East) Ltd.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is the world's pre-eminent museum of applied and decorative arts. It was given its present name in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, but its origins go back to the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. That event - the world's first international exposition - revealed the need for collections of art that could teach British manufacturers and artisans the principals of good design, and the museum was founded in the following year for that purpose. Among the models chosen to inspire British designers were works of art from Persia, Turkey and the Arab world, which were particularly admired for their harmonious coordination of decoration and form. Over the next 150 years, the Museum assembled one of the most significant collections of art from the above referenced cultures and regions, highlights of which were presented in Palace and Mosque, an exhibition that toured several cities in the United States and Europe while the galleries for Persian, Turkish and Arab art were being refurbished. The newly renovated Jameel Galleries of Islamic Art will be opened to the public in late July 2006. As part of the opening celebrations, a reception has been organised by the Iran Heritage Foundation n collaboration with the Museum, allowing friends and admirers of Persian art to view the magnificent collections of the Museum in their new setting. The Museum is considered to have one of the world's most important collections of Persian art from the Islamic period.

Tim Stanley, the Museum's curator of Near Eastern Art, will provide an introduction to the Museum's collections at the reception.

£19

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