Art Treasures in Manchester 150 Years On until 27 Jan 2008

150 years after Art Treasures first opened in Manchester, the exhibition returns to the city in a show at Manchester Art Gallery.

The original Art Treasures show, held in 1857, was an extraordinary achievement for Manchester. In a time when the city was best known for cotton, industry and poverty, the original Art Treasures show radically altered public opinion of the city as over 1.3million people (including Queen Victoria and the French emporer Louis Napoleon) poured into Manchester to look at the artworks on show.

Art Treasures took place at Old Trafford, in a temporary glass pavillion the size of London's Crystal Palace. Over 16,000 pieces of art were collected, ranging from paintings by the Old Masters to  Venetian glasswork, Wedgewood ceramics to European armour and contemporary fine art to Limoges enamels.

Art Treasures in Manchester: 150 Years On will showcase over 160 of the artworks displayed at the original exhibition, along with contemporary material such as newspaper reports and individual accounts  to help visitors understand the social, economic and political climate at the time of Art Treasures.

The undoubted highlight of the exhibition is Michelangelo's Madonna and Child with Saint John and the Angels. The painting was first shown to the world at the original Art Treasures, having recently been attributed to Michelangelo, and its showing caused so much excitement that it was dubbed the Manchester Madonna, a name it still bears now. The painting is making a historic return to the city for the duration of the exhibition.

Other significant works returning to the city have been loaned out from national collections around the UK, including the Royal Collection and The National Galleries of London and Scotland.

This is a rare opportunity to not only see a great range of the cournty's most famous artworks but also to experience the exhibition which put Manchester on the cultural map.