Art + Auctions

9 Rare Works by Pablo Picasso, Zaha Hadid, and Others Debut in Scotland

Ten new galleries open at the National Museum of Scotland

Photography by National Museums Scotland

July 13, 2016

Marking the latest phase of the National Museum of Scotland's $105 million redevelopment plan, the institution opened the doors last week to ten state-of-the-art galleries, which now hold 40 percent more exhibition space than before. Visitors are now welcome to peruse the more than 3,500 objects, an estimated three-quarters of which are on display for the first time in a generation. With four of the new areas dedicated to art and design, the museum also has ample room to showcase its rare artworks (including a glass sculpture by Pablo Picasso) and fashions (like Zaha Hadid’s metallic shoe for United Nude). Coinciding with the museum’s 150th anniversary, the $18 million renovation was overseen by Hoskins Architects, with the exhibitions designed by London-based firm Metaphor. Below, AD has rounded up some of the can’t-miss pieces on display in the new design galleries.

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To mark its 150th anniversary, the National Museum of Scotland debuted ten new galleries focused on artistic achievements and technological advances.
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Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas conjured the Nova shoe for United Nude in 2013.

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Matthew Chambers’s Eclipse Blue hand-thrown 2011 stoneware sculpture.
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A black goose-feather mask crafted by Irene Bussemaker for couturière Iris van Herpen’s Synesthesia collection in 2010.

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A velvet-upholstered tearoom chair designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the early 20th century.
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To honor Italian cyclist Fausto Coppi, who won the 1949 Giro d’Italia–Tour de France, designer Drummond Masterton milled a rollicking landscape into this aluminum bowl, titled Campionissimo.

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The fabled Hamilton-Rothschild tazza, a Byzantine sardonyx bowl with a gold foot, was created in the early 18th century by the tenth Duke of Hamilton.
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Legendary modernist Marcel Breuer designed this wood dressing table in 1925, believed to have been owned by Wassily Kandinsky.

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This 100-piece silver-gilt traveling service belonged to Napoléon’s sister, the Princess Pauline Borghese, in the early 19th century.
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Around 1935, Norman Bel Geddes crafted this sleek cocktail tray made of chromium-plated copper alloy.