A Victorian pharmaceutical collection could be seized and sold by Plymouth City Council, according to its owners.
The collection, which is owned by the Park Pharmacy Trust, consists of historic shop fittings and medicinal artefacts, and is on display at the council-run Merchant's House museum.
The council is trying to recover nearly £53,000 in legal costs from the trust, after it took the council to judicial review in 2006 in an attempt to have a planning application quashed that would have led to the destruction of its medicinal garden.
The trust's chairwoman, Jan Knight, said it had no money to pay the legal costs and that she had asked the council to drop the case.
A spokeswoman for Plymouth City Council said: "No decisions have been made and we are looking at various options for the best way forward to resolve matters."
Knight said she had received a supportive response from the medical heritage community and the Museums Association's ethics committee. She added that she was hopeful that the matter could be resolved without selling the collection.
The collection, which is owned by the Park Pharmacy Trust, consists of historic shop fittings and medicinal artefacts, and is on display at the council-run Merchant's House museum.
The council is trying to recover nearly £53,000 in legal costs from the trust, after it took the council to judicial review in 2006 in an attempt to have a planning application quashed that would have led to the destruction of its medicinal garden.
The trust's chairwoman, Jan Knight, said it had no money to pay the legal costs and that she had asked the council to drop the case.
A spokeswoman for Plymouth City Council said: "No decisions have been made and we are looking at various options for the best way forward to resolve matters."
Knight said she had received a supportive response from the medical heritage community and the Museums Association's ethics committee. She added that she was hopeful that the matter could be resolved without selling the collection.