India, Aug. 3 -- It's a bit like a department store, except instead of groceries, there are slices of history on the shelves: a 16th-century Japanese suit of armour; 600-year-old ceramics; wedding dresses from the 1930s. This is the newly opened V&A East Storehouse. In an effort more than 10 years in the making, an old warehouse has been redesigned as an array of vast, airy galleries, spread across three storeys, each level arranged around a striking 20-metre-high central atrium. All the 250,000-plus artefacts are visible to visitors, placed either within transparent wrapping or behind thin glass, in partially dismantled crates. The V&A wanted to reimagine what a museum could be, and give viewers a "backstage pass" to what really goes on in...