End is in sight for the Wedgwood collection
Concerns for collections in other museums that have moved to trust status. By Patrick Steel
The Art Fund is staking the future of the Wedgwood Collection on a public appeal to raise £2.74m to save it for the nation – and accepts there is no plan B if it fails to meet this target by the end of November.
Bob Young, senior partner at administrator Begbies Traynor, says that if the Art Fund fails to reach its target, he will be instructed by creditors to sell the collection by private treaty or auction. But he adds that “nobody envisages that happening”.
The Art Fund has already raised most of the £15.75m price tag agreed by the administrator last year, and aims to gift the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London.
The objects would be kept on display at the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston, Staffordshire, which owner WWRD is redeveloping alongside a new World of Wedgwood – a “concept retail tour branding experience” incorporating a shop, factory tour, tearoom, restaurant and children’s play area.
Museums Journal has learned that a new trust for the collection was considered, but this was deemed too complicated and expensive compared with transferring ownership to the V&A.
The full terms of the loan agreement between the V&A and WWRD are still to be worked out, but it is envisaged that while the collection would remain in Barlaston, the V&A would retain the right to display parts of it elsewhere, lend objects to other museums or move it in the event of the Barlaston museum closing.
WWRD took on the running of the Wedgwood Museum, at a cost of about £150,000 a year, when the Wedgwood Museum Trust went into administration in 2010. WWRD chief financial officer Anthony Jones says he is committed to “providing all the services that a museum should provide”.
He adds it will ensure that museum staff are “transferred or treated fairly” and that no one is left in the liquidated entity.
When it launches in April, the redeveloped Barlaston site will have more natural light and more space in the museum, and new displays.
The fate of the Wedgwood collection has raised questions about the vulnerability of other collections in museums that have moved to trust status.
In most cases where local authority museums have become trusts, the collection has remained in the ownership of the local authority. There is concern in the sector that this could now leave them exposed to claims over which the trust would have no control.
January 2009
Waterford Wedgwood goes into administration. The Wedgwood Museum Trust becomes liable for the company’s pension deficit of £134m.
April 2010
Wedgwood Museum Trust goes into administration.
December 2011
High court rules that collection can be sold to pay creditors.
March 2012
The attorney general upholds high court judgment.
November 2013
Administrator agrees value of £15.75m for collection. The Art Fund is given one year to raise funds.
September 2014
The Art Fund launches an appeal to raise the remaining £2.74m.
Bob Young, senior partner at administrator Begbies Traynor, says that if the Art Fund fails to reach its target, he will be instructed by creditors to sell the collection by private treaty or auction. But he adds that “nobody envisages that happening”.
The Art Fund has already raised most of the £15.75m price tag agreed by the administrator last year, and aims to gift the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London.
The objects would be kept on display at the Wedgwood Museum in Barlaston, Staffordshire, which owner WWRD is redeveloping alongside a new World of Wedgwood – a “concept retail tour branding experience” incorporating a shop, factory tour, tearoom, restaurant and children’s play area.
Museums Journal has learned that a new trust for the collection was considered, but this was deemed too complicated and expensive compared with transferring ownership to the V&A.
The full terms of the loan agreement between the V&A and WWRD are still to be worked out, but it is envisaged that while the collection would remain in Barlaston, the V&A would retain the right to display parts of it elsewhere, lend objects to other museums or move it in the event of the Barlaston museum closing.
WWRD took on the running of the Wedgwood Museum, at a cost of about £150,000 a year, when the Wedgwood Museum Trust went into administration in 2010. WWRD chief financial officer Anthony Jones says he is committed to “providing all the services that a museum should provide”.
He adds it will ensure that museum staff are “transferred or treated fairly” and that no one is left in the liquidated entity.
When it launches in April, the redeveloped Barlaston site will have more natural light and more space in the museum, and new displays.
The fate of the Wedgwood collection has raised questions about the vulnerability of other collections in museums that have moved to trust status.
In most cases where local authority museums have become trusts, the collection has remained in the ownership of the local authority. There is concern in the sector that this could now leave them exposed to claims over which the trust would have no control.
The Wedgwood saga
January 2009
Waterford Wedgwood goes into administration. The Wedgwood Museum Trust becomes liable for the company’s pension deficit of £134m.
April 2010
Wedgwood Museum Trust goes into administration.
December 2011
High court rules that collection can be sold to pay creditors.
March 2012
The attorney general upholds high court judgment.
November 2013
Administrator agrees value of £15.75m for collection. The Art Fund is given one year to raise funds.
September 2014
The Art Fund launches an appeal to raise the remaining £2.74m.