David Bowie Estate Gifts 80K Pieces to British Museum

David Bowie will soon have a massive presence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London.

The museum shared via social media, “We are thrilled to announce that the exceptional archive of legend @DavidBowieReal is coming to the V&A! Spanning 80,000 items across his 60 year career, you can explore Bowie’s life’s work in ways never possible before at @vam_east Storehouse from 2025 #DavidBowieArchive.”

We are thrilled to announce that the exceptional archive of legend @DavidBowieReal is coming to the V&A! Spanning 80,000 items across his 60 year career, you can explore Bowie’s life’s work in ways never possible before at @vam_east Storehouse from 2025 #DavidBowieArchive pic.twitter.com/sTGtJnydKB

— V&A (@V_and_A) February 23, 2023

The Associated Press notes the items will be on display for the public at the new David Bowie Center for the Study of Performing Arts.

V&A senior curator Kate Bailey said in a statement, “Bowie’s a polymath, he’s multifaceted. He was inspired by all genres and disciplines.”

She added, “He’s an artist who was working really in 360 — drawing from literature, but also drawing from art history … (and) the places that he’d been to.”

David Bowie: His 40 Greatest Songs

David Bowie’s passing is a few years behind us, and it still somehow feels shocking. His catalog, though, remains as relevant and influential as ever, so choosing his greatest songs was difficult.

We opened the parameters a bit, including songs that he wrote for other artists (Iggy Pop and Mott the Hoople); Tin Machine was fair game, as were remixes of his songs and so were collaborations. And as always, it was difficult to cut the list off at 40, so some of our favorites just missed the cut.