Statistics

The Museums Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network publishes statistics on the collections in its care and on the work of the Office: objects received, records catalogued and published, conservation, exhibitions and the learning programme. This first release covers the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026, during which member organisations transferred their collections to the Office, and records the position at establishment on 6 September 2026.

The figures are drawn from the day books of the stores, from the register of the collections and from returns supplied by member organisations. Figures for the transition period are provisional and will be revised in later releases where late returns are received.

The position at establishment. The figures below record the Office and the collections at the point of establishment.

128,400

Objects and specimens in the national collections at establishment

41,286

Records catalogued to full standard and published in the first register

26

Collections transferred by fourteen member organisations during the transition

61

Staff of the Office at establishment

The work of the transition. The collections arrived in two halves: the founding collection, the library and the archive among the first transfers, and the large divisions of natural sciences and industry and engineering among the last. The activity recorded during the period is shown below.

Where the collections are held. Each division is stored at the site of the museum that will show it, as set out below. The arrangement allows the museums to be fitted out around their own collections and keeps handling and travel to a minimum.

The staff of the Office. Most of the Office's staff transferred with the collections from member organisations and continue the work they did before, to the Office's common standard.

The programme ahead. The figures below record what the Office has established for the period between establishment and the opening of the first museum.

6

Buildings in the care of the Office, opening between January 2027 and September 2028

3

Travelling exhibitions to be shown at Network sites before the first museum opens

7

Learning programmes beginning between 21 September 2026 and May 2027

32%

Share of the collections catalogued and published in the first register

The Office will publish statistics quarterly. The schedule of releases is below; each release is announced in the Newsroom. The collections register is reissued on its own quarterly cycle, in December 2026, March 2027 and June 2027, as set out on the Collections page. For the milestones of the programme these figures report on, see History. Questions about these figures may be sent to contact@museums.gov.vin.