Mayhem at the Victoria and Albert

Renovation Plans for the Victoria and Albert Museum circa 1891

Prologue

You are in attendance at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Lecture Theater. Although the museum has been closed to the public for extensive building additions, exceptions are made for ongoing scientific research at the adjacent Science School.

In addition, new exhibits are being installed in both the North and South Galleries. Professor Georgina Rukhs has been coordinating an exhibition in the South Court of the museum of Egyptian artifacts that have never toured England. Entitled, the Ankh: The Roaming Dead, the exhibit centers around the rituals of reanimation and the recent discovery of the Coffin Texts – and includes almost a dozen coffins from the Middle Kingdom. Although she has not visited the gallery, the crates of artifacts arrived several weeks ago and have been in the process of being unpacked.

Tonight, the museum is being opened to a select audience to announce a major scientific discovery – the discovery of a second Antarctica continent by the renowned explorer Dr. James Appleton. While all of the galleries are closed, there will be a lecture in the Lecture Theater followed by cocktails and dinner in the Green Room. Mostly open to the scientific community, Professor Rukhs has garnered an opera box overlooking the Lecture Theater for four people – not the best location, but still a chance to be at a groundbreaking announcement.

Dressed in your finest, you enter the Lecture Theatre from the rear of the building – as the front edifice is completely under scaffolding. Moving quickly up the North Staircase, you arrive at the last box (Box 3) overlooking the room. Dr. James Appleton is just taking the stage...

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