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The Victoria and Albert Museum will display a guitar smashed onstage in the 1970s by Pete Townsend of The Who, starting in March 2009.

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Starting in March 2009, the V&A will display objects from the collections of London's now defunct Theatre Museum, such as a jumpsuit worn by Mick Jagger, a tutu worn by Margot Fonteyn, a first folio of Shakespeare's plays, and a guitar smashed onstage by Pete Townsend.

In November 2009, the museum will open 10 rooms surveying European art and design from the Roman Empire's collapse to the late Renaissance. These galleries will include Leonardo da Vinci notebooks and Donatello sculptures. These new spaces are expected to cost £30 million ($46.3 million), £9.75 million of which is coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Also opening next year are new ceramics galleries showing approximately 3,000 objects spanning the ages.