The Symmachi Panel. Rome ; about 400. Ivory; h. 29.6 cm, w. 12.1 cm. Inv. no. 212-1865

NEW YORK.- The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds one of the world’s finest collections of European decorative arts. Thirty-five of its masterpieces will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning May 20, 2008, in the exhibition Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum, while the V&A prepares a new suite of galleries for its collection. Dating from 300 to 1600, the exhibition will include superb examples of sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, and glass that are rarely lent. Most have never been on view in New York.

These mostly small-scale works of art are highly prized for their beauty, the value of their materials, and the exquisite workmanship that marks their creation. Among the highlights will be the Carolingian ivory cover of the Lorsch Gospels, an ivory statuette of the crucified Christ by Giovanni Pisano, Donatello’s bronze Putto with Fish, a pair of gilt-bronze statuettes of prophets by Hubert Gerhard, and the Codex Forster I, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s precious notebooks.

Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum will provide a rare opportunity to see these works together before they are installed in the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries opening at the V&A in fall 2009.