V&A/British Museum buy Middle Eastern photography

[Michael Pritchard]

The Independent Charity The Art Fund has allocated £100,000 to the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum to help create a national collection of recent Middle Eastern photography. The two museums approached the Fund last year, and have so far received £57,000 to buy 31 works. Apart from being a young area in the art market where prices are affordable, Middle Eastern photography is also an area of growing interest. For the V&A, the acquisitions will fit into its national photography collection. For the BM it is an opportunity to reflect on the connections between its historic Islamic art collections and the extraordinary artistic, social and political changes that have been taking place in the region.