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Research into England’s oldest medieval altarpiece – which for centuries provided the backdrop to Westminster Abbey coronations – has revealed that it cost no more than the rather unprincely equivalent of eight cows.

It was thought that no bronzes by Michelangelo had survived - now experts believe they have found not one, but two - with a tiny detail in a 500-year-old drawing providing vital evidence.

In his book, Gothic Wonder, Professor Paul Binski explores a period in which English art and architecture pushed the boundaries to produce some of Europe’s most spectacular buildings and illuminated manuscripts. Binski’s research sets into context the whole gamut of human endeavour: from awesome cathedrals to playfully irreverent grotesques.

Life-size mannequins, dolls and over 180 remarkable artworks from collections across the world will be going on display in Cambridge today (14 October) , as the Fitzwilliam Museum opens its major 2014 exhibition Silent Partners: Artist and Mannequin from Function to Fetish.
 

̽»¨Ö±²¥vision of securing Cambridge’s reputation as an international centre of museums excellence received a major boost today when Arts Council England awarded ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge Museums (UCM) nearly £4.5m for 2015-18 and continuing Major Partner Museum status.

Earlier this year a conservator at the Hamilton Kerr Institute made a surprising discovery while working on a 17th-century painting owned by the Fitzwilliam Museum.  As Shan Kuang cleaned the surface, she revealed the beached whale that had been the intended focus of the composition.  ̽»¨Ö±²¥artwork is now back on display in the Fitzwilliam's newly-refurbished gallery of Dutch Golden Age painting.  

Book launch highlights the lives and work of women at the ̽»¨Ö±²¥

Our lives are bound up with objects. Museums are evidence of our deep preoccupation with the things that surround us, whether natural or the product of human endeavour. Why do we keep stuff, what do we learn from it – and what does our fascination for objects from our past tell us about being human today?

From 11 – 14 November 2013 the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, welcomed five students from the Torres Strait Islands. ̽»¨Ö±²¥secondary school pupils, from Waybeni Koey Ngurpay Mudh Tagai State College (Thursday Island Secondary campus) visited the museum as part of a cultural and educational exchange and to embark on their own historical research

̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge museums are among those highlighted as examples of best practice in a new report focusing on the outstanding contributions made by the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ Museums Group UK.