Sir Richard Wallace: The Collector is at The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1, until January 6, 2019 (020–7563 9500; www.wallacecollection.org) It is fitting that the inaugural show of the museum's new exhibition gallery should celebrate, in his bicentenary year, the life and unprecedented cultural legacy of Sir Richard Wallace (1818–1890). Having inherited the outstanding collection (which he had helped to build up) of his presumed father, the 4th Marquess of Hertford, this enigmatic Francophile greatly enhanced it with his own eclectic acquisitions, including silver, jewellery, arms and armour and medieval and Renaissance fine and decorative arts, and ensured it would be enjoyed by the public. On her death in 1897, his widow left it to the nation. Treasures on show include a golden trophy head from Ghana,…
