V&A announces Constantinople to Istanbul exhibition with Koç Holding

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London's national museum of art and design, announced a major exhibition on the art and culture of Constantinople and Istanbul. It was titled Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires and was presented in partnership with Koç Holding, one of Türkiye's largest business groups.

The show was planned to trace the history of a single city that served as the capital of two successive empires: the Byzantine, from the fourth century to 1453, and the Ottoman, from 1453 to 1922. Organisers said it would bring together more than 200 objects, with loans from institutions in Türkiye and elsewhere in Europe.

The announcement mattered because it promised one of the largest presentations of Istanbul's imperial heritage in the United Kingdom, built on cooperation between a British museum, Turkish cultural institutions and private sponsorship. It also framed the city's long history as a continuous story rather than two separate ones. The exhibition was scheduled to open at the V&A's South Kensington site in November 2026.