Vitriol & Ambition It's one of the world's great museums. But the V&A is in crisis again - and the hunt is on for a new director. Stephen Bayley (left) is one of the candidates. Here, in what he calls `a professional suicide note', he offers an insider's account of what's gone wrong

The Independent - London | July 28, 2000| | Copyright

The V&A is in a mess, but then it so often is. That overblown, pompous Edwardian facade disguises a fragmented, demoralised institution, whose purpose is as confused as its collections are magnificent, and whose future looks as grim as its past was distinguished. In the darkest days of the First World War, the French intellectual Paul Claudel said: "Gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between the crisis and the catastrophe, we may as well enjoy a glass of champagne." Veuve-Clicquot, anyone ?

There's a rumpus - largely synthetic - going on about a new exhibition that juxtaposes ...

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