Ashmolean Silver

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has unveiled a collection of 480 pieces of Renaissance silverware bequeathed to the museum by the dealer and collector Michael Wellby, who died last year. This treasure is deemed the most important gift to a British museum for over a century. During the 1940s and 1950s, Wellby began dealing in silver from Germany that was unpopular and undervalued and could be bought for little more than melt value. Professor Wilson of the Ashmolean concedes that some of these treasures might be Nazi loot, stolen from Jews during the Holocaust, and will need careful research into their provenance. Shown are Silver-gilt cups and figurines from the collection. Some will go on display in the West Meets East gallery before the entire collection is housed in a permanent gallery (CLICK).