Fitzwilliam Museum’s painting galleries to reopen

The Fitzwilliam Museum’s five main painting galleries will reopen entirely on Friday (15 March).

The galleries at the Cambridge-based museum have been closed for a major refurbishment and redisplay project.

Built between 1837 and 1843, the galleries, located in the Fitzwilliam’s original Founder’s Building, have been equipped with better lighting, new silk wall coverings and new glass in the ceiling domes.

The refurbished space will feature over 190 works of art dating from the 1600s to the present day and from across Europe. The museum says each of the five galleries will be focused around a theme that brings the historic, modern and contemporary together.

“This redisplay juxtaposes historic and contemporary works to offer a narrative that links past and present,” said the museum’s Director, Luke Syson. 

“We can do this so well because of the depth and range of our magnificent collection and because of some exceptional new acquisitions. Many of our most famous works of art now take their place alongside more unfamiliar pieces in a rich array that deliberately leaves space for a range of responses and asks us all to think anew.”

The refurbishment and redisplay has been supported by the Albert Reckitt Charitable Trust and the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.