About the department

The Ashmolean’s cast gallery is one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved collections of casts of Greek and Roman sculpture in the UK. It contains some 900 plaster casts of statues, reliefs, and architectural sculptures. The collection is particularly strong in casts of Classical sculpture, but also has important Hellenistic and Roman material – including iconic pieces such as the Venus di Milo and the Nike of Samothrace. Many of the historical casts, some dating back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are in better condition than the acid-rain-damaged originals from which they were moulded.

The casts are displayed in a purpose-built gallery constructed in 1959 and their presentation has changed little since then. Furthermore, the cast gallery was used as temporary storage space for objects while the museum’s redevelopment project took place. We are now refurbishing the gallery and redisplay the casts in a stimulating, modern, accessible manner so that there is a meaningful connection between the cast gallery and the adjoining Ancient World galleries in the new Ashmolean building.

The new gallery, which will be directly accessible from the Rome Gallery, will be open to the public in Autumn 2010.

If you require any information, please contact Victoria McGuinness (Projects Manager)
e: victoria.mcguinness@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
t: 01865 288075