V&A to stage major Istanbul exhibition spanning Byzantine and Ottoman eras

From 7 November 2026 to 9 May 2027, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will host 'Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires,' marking the first UK exhibition to explore 1,600 years of the city’s role as the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Featuring more than 200 artifacts, including ceramics, mosaics, tableware, metalwork, and jewelry, the exhibition includes significant loans from Turkish institutions like the Topkapi Palace Museum. A highlight is the Lincoln Typikon, a 14th-century manuscript from Lincoln College, Oxford, which will be publicly exhibited for the first time in 60 years. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections. The main sponsor is the Koç Group, Turkey's largest industrial conglomerate, with support from the Koç family for the contemporary art non-profit Arter in Istanbul. Curators are Tim Stanley and Bella Radenovic.