London's Victoria & Albert museum of art and design announced that it has bought two models of original Liberator printed handguns for an unspecified amount. They will go on display from September 14-22 at the London Design Festival.
It may be a highly-controversial topic but a museum in London has decided to include the 3D printed handgun in a range of "contemporary design projects." The Liberator handgun, created by a Texas law student, Cody Wilson, drew wide attention from government watchdogs and anti-gun groups, earlier this year. Following the success of testing the Liberator gun, Wilson posted blueprints of how to print a gun using a 3D printer in May.
The blueprint traveled wide across and reached 100,000 downloads in just a week. The move was criticized and the US State Department demanded that Defense Distributed, the entity known for its 3D printing technology and maker of Liberator, take down the blueprints.
"We are thrilled that in its third year, the Design Fund to Benefit the V&A has continued to enable the acquisition of such meaningful works for the Museum," Yana Peel, Founder of the Design Fund to Benefit the V&A, said in a press release. "With 17 exceptional contemporary design projects now acquired through the collective generosity of the Fund's donors, a legacy is being built to represent the leading trends in design and society of today."
The London-based museum also purchased two Liberator prototypes, a dissembled gun and other archive items "to enhance its collection of 3D-printed objects and represent a turning point in the debates around digital manufacturing," the press release reads.
The organization could have printed one of those guns instead of going through the trouble of purchasing one. But the authenticity of the guns date back to the testing days of the Liberator. One of the models with V&A is so authentic, that its right side was blown-off during the early days of failed pistol testing.
The acquired 3D printed models of the Liberators will go on display at the London Design Festival, starting September 14 and runs through September 22, 2013.
