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‘I Turned it into a Palace: Sir Sydney Cockerell and ̽»¨Ö±²¥Fitzwilliam Museum’ opens today with visitors given a unique opportunity to see treasures such as the Macclesfield Psalter and Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia placed in an intimate gallery alongside the works of Keats, William Blake and Thomas Hardy.

Cockerell famously stated that he found the Fitzwilliam a ‘pigstye’ and ‘turned it into a palace’ during his dynamic directorship from 1908-1937.
His unique ambition and innovation transformed not just the Fitzwilliam, but the display and interpretation of art in museums and galleries across the globe.
Cockerell developed a close relationship with leading artists, writers and collectors of the period, including John Ruskin, William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Fairfax Murray, and Henry Yates Thompson.
Many of the treasures on display are rarely seen by the public.
But until March 17, 2009, works by William Blake and Keats' autograph manuscript of Ode to the Nightingale – as well as a superb collection of medieval illuminated manuscripts – will be shown alongside gems such as an original Mozart score.
̽»¨Ö±²¥exhibition, given a rave 4/5 review by ̽»¨Ö±²¥Times last week, is expected to prove popular
A number of these exceptional works of art were acquired by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, another of Cockerell's novel creations, followed as a model by museums and galleries throughout the country.
To mark the centenary of the foundation of the Friends in 1909, the exhibition will conclude with a recent acquisition which attracted their most generous contribution ever and the largest public support in the history of the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Macclesfield Psalter.
As a newly discovered member of the East Anglian school of illumination, which was first defined and studied by Sydney Cockerell, its acquisition is a tribute to his life-long passion for illuminated manuscripts - as a scholar, collector, and museum director.
̽»¨Ö±²¥Psalter, written in Latin and produced around 1330, became something of a cause-celebre in 2005 when the Government placed an export ban on the manuscript, temporarily barring its sale to the Getty Museum of Malibu, during which time the funds were raised to keep it in the UK.
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