The announcement was made in autumn 2004 that the extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum, known as the 'Spiral' - hard-won and much praised by the gallery world - was to be cancelled. Once again, the primary reason was a lack of supportive public funding. Rethinking what to do with the site intended for the Spiral is now underway, but Daniel Libeskind, the brilliant architect of the original Spiral design, will not be around. New York meanwhile beckoned him to Ground Zero and many a battle there.