High court to rule on fate of Wedgwood collections
Works may be sold to cover pension deficit
The fate of the Wedgwood Museum’s collections will be decided at Birmingham high court this month.
The hearing, which will take place over three days from 13 September, will decide whether the Wedgwood Museum Trust (WMT) is liable for the £135m pension deficit inherited from the Wedgwood Pension Plan Trustee Limited, which went into administration last year.
If the judgment goes against the WMT, the collections, which are valued at £20m, will be sold. They include 18th-century fine art and ceramics, as well as documents, manuscripts and factory equipment that belonged to Wedgwood’s founder, Josiah Wedgwood I.
Writing on the Art and Artifice blog, Bruce Tattersall, a former curator of the museum, said: “Despite Ed Vaizey’s assurance that the Victoria and Albert Museum could be involved in any dispersal of the collection, it may be, in the current economic climate, that the government may be unable or unwilling to organise a rescue.
“Such a result would be a disaster for the museum, Staffordshire and the nation. Individual items such as the Wedgwood Family portrait by George Stubbs with depictions of Josiah, his wife Sarah and their daughter Susannah, mother of Charles Darwin, would surely be refused an export licence.
“The dismemberment or export of the archive would be unthinkable. Whatever the court’s decision, it will have a profound impact on the museum world.”
• Check the Museums Association website for updates to this story.
The hearing, which will take place over three days from 13 September, will decide whether the Wedgwood Museum Trust (WMT) is liable for the £135m pension deficit inherited from the Wedgwood Pension Plan Trustee Limited, which went into administration last year.
If the judgment goes against the WMT, the collections, which are valued at £20m, will be sold. They include 18th-century fine art and ceramics, as well as documents, manuscripts and factory equipment that belonged to Wedgwood’s founder, Josiah Wedgwood I.
Writing on the Art and Artifice blog, Bruce Tattersall, a former curator of the museum, said: “Despite Ed Vaizey’s assurance that the Victoria and Albert Museum could be involved in any dispersal of the collection, it may be, in the current economic climate, that the government may be unable or unwilling to organise a rescue.
“Such a result would be a disaster for the museum, Staffordshire and the nation. Individual items such as the Wedgwood Family portrait by George Stubbs with depictions of Josiah, his wife Sarah and their daughter Susannah, mother of Charles Darwin, would surely be refused an export licence.
“The dismemberment or export of the archive would be unthinkable. Whatever the court’s decision, it will have a profound impact on the museum world.”
• Check the Museums Association website for updates to this story.