Vionnet dress collection saved for the nation (UK that is!)

TinTrunk

TinTrunk

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Last year there was a risk that a collection of nine exquisite Vionnet gowns owned by Lady Foley were going to be lost to the nation. The government culture minister Barbara Follett placed a temporary export ban on them to allow British bidders to raise funds to save them.

Well, they've been saved! A consortium of three museums - the V&A, the Fashion Museum in Bath and the Bowes Museum in Durham have pitted their resources in a deal worth £450,000. :excited:

The only drawback is that you'll have to go to three separate museums spread right across the country to see them all! :)

More info here:

http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-...seum-saves-a-piece-of-history-61634-25192375/

and here:

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/art73444

If I find any more pictures of these gowns I'll post them here.

Sarah

EDIT: the two dresses going to the Fashion Museum can be seen here:

http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/exhibitions/future_displays/vionnet.aspx
 
I am not quite sure why French dresses would be considered English national heritage... We had this issue when at the Bata Shoe Museum -- several purchases were stopped including 17th century Italian shoes with an incorrect attribution. These purchases are usually stopped because the buyers for them are foreign museums who are buying the garments legally for export. Meanwhile, some museums have figured out that the back door way of getting things out of the country is by funding English buyers to buy the items who then quietly sell them under the table, avoiding official export visas. There is an early 17th century doublet that was warned in the auction sale would be considered for national heritage but it was sold to an English dealer and then miraculously, fifteen years later, the doublet shows up in a Japanese museum collection. The items that are earmarked for national heritage are done so by their final sale price. I don't know what it is now, but I recall it used to be 20,000 pounds. Monetary value is an imperfect way to determine historical value but I guess its an easier way to determine value for restricting export. At any rate, my point is that although its nice the dresses are being retained by British museums it was probably at the expense of other museums elsewhere in the world, so its not like the dresses were being bought by some private individual to wear to a party...
 
I'm not sure its about English national heritage, Jonathan. Although these were dresses purchased and worn by the socialite Lady Foley, an English aristocrat, so I suppose there's some legitimate claim and provenance there :)

On many occasions when a temporary export ban has been imposed, the artefact (or its maker) doesn't originate from this country but it has been in some aristocrat's stately home and is being sold off to pay the heating bills or fix the roof or something! The examples that make the news tend to be old master paintings, like Titians or Raphaels, so I'm actually amazed that they've stumped up the cash for a bunch of frocks. Costume collections still rank quite low in the museum pecking order, as I'm sure you know!

I reckon it was more about the finite number of surviving Vionnet garments in the world (Vionnet being arguably one of the greatest couturiers of all time), not to mention their rocketing value, and this being an incredibly rare chance to acquire them to enhance British museum collections.

And as you say, its a happy result if they end up in publicly accessible museum collections so that in theory anyone can study and enjoy them, rather than disappearing into private collections never to be seen again. Or worse, being bought merely as investment commodities to be stored in bank vaults by people who have no interest in them apart from the opportunity to make money.

Personally, I'm not remotely nationalistic about this, but I think any country would have fought to retain a similar collection within their shores - it would be short-sighted, not to mention unforgivably idiotic not to!

The Met has 90 Vionnet garments, the V&A has 17. You can't blame the British authorities for wanting to catch up a bit!

Cheers Louise - by my sums that's £50,000 a dress! :jawdrop:

Hi b :hiya: My pleasure. I thought the news might be of interest to fellow vintage fiends!
 
Thanks Carrie! :USETHUMBUP:

If I find any more pics of the collection I will add them here.

Surprisingly the V&A hasn't even updated their website with an announcement about their share yet (you think they'd be a bit excited about it, wouldn't you?!), but the Fashion Museum and Bowes Museum plan to have them on display as early as December.

Sarah
 
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