Merck said on Wednesday it was scrapping research operations in London, citing the UK's challenging business environment, and would relocate the research activity to existing sites primarily in the United States.

The archive chronicles five decades of restless creativity by the shape-shifting musician, who was born plain old David Jones in the London suburbs in 1947. Harriet Reed, a theater and performance curator at the V&A, said Bowie was "an active archivist" of his life and work.