This mysterious 17th-century cabinet from modern-day Colombia holds a surprising secret...
Made of a rare plant resin called mopa mopa, and decorated with a technique known as Barniz de Pasto, this unique table cabinet is unlike anything else in our collection. When it was acquired in 2015, a routine x-ray revealed an even more remarkable discovery: a vivid skeleton of Death, or memento mori, lay hidden beneath a layer of paint, applied some 300 years after it was made.
Follow V&A curators, conservators and scientists on their journey to unravel this box of mysteries. Watch as the overpaint is finally removed to reveal the skeleton in all his glory, along with a cryptic message or rebus – the final part of the puzzle.
Read more about this fascinating object
You can find detailed imagery of the cabinet on Explore the Collections
