Following a $22 million renovation and re-installation some seven years in the planning and execution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s galleries devoted to British art and design reopen to the public on March 2nd. The nearly seven hundred objects and artworks on view—in ten room encompassing some 11,000 square feet—offer a layered and nuanced view of British history through the prism of its furniture, decorative arts, and architecture. There are many things of beauty and splendor on display in these galleries, yet curators have not flinched from the exploitative and often cruel nature of the empire that fostered their creation.