'A haunting glimpse of what we lost': Virgin and Child returns to England after 600 years

A medieval Virgin and Child that survived the ravages of the Reformation has returned to England for the first time in 600 years.

The alabaster statue, thought to have been made around 1350 in the Midlands, is hailed as a masterpiece and is now on display at the British Museum.

Historian Tom Holland described it as “a haunting glimpse of what we lost”.

Lloyd de Beer, co-curator of the medieval collection at the museum, told the Guardian: “When you look at an object like this and think what it has endured, it is so moving. If the British Museum exists for nothing else, it exists for this.”