The Wedgwood Museum may have to sell items from its collections even if it wins its high court battle to keep the collection in Stoke-on-Trent, according to administrators.
At a three-day high court hearing last month, the museum argued that the collection had permanent endowment status and therefore should not be sold to meet a £134m shortfall in a pension scheme of which five of its employees were members. Judgment was reserved and is expected to be delivered within the next few months.
But Bob Young, senior partner at administrator Begbies Traynor, said that a Berkeley Applegate Order meant that the museum could sell items if it had to cover its costs, raising the possibility that even if the museum won, it might still have to sell items from its collections.
“The judge would rule who has to pay,” he said. “But if that should be necessary, the trust would have to raise funds, or the bottom line is that it would have to sell [from the collections].”
Bruce Tattersall, a former curator of the Wedgwood Museum, was despondent about the outcome of the hearing.
“I don’t think the museum has much chance and I’m not optimistic that the government will try to rescue it in the current financial climate,” he said.
“It would be a huge loss and would mean the collection would probably go to the US. “It is a disaster, but in a sense, it is a disaster that the museum has brought on itself.”
The museum collections have been valued at £20m and include two of only four existing first-day vases made at the Wedgwood factory in Etruria in 1769.
At a three-day high court hearing last month, the museum argued that the collection had permanent endowment status and therefore should not be sold to meet a £134m shortfall in a pension scheme of which five of its employees were members. Judgment was reserved and is expected to be delivered within the next few months.
But Bob Young, senior partner at administrator Begbies Traynor, said that a Berkeley Applegate Order meant that the museum could sell items if it had to cover its costs, raising the possibility that even if the museum won, it might still have to sell items from its collections.
“The judge would rule who has to pay,” he said. “But if that should be necessary, the trust would have to raise funds, or the bottom line is that it would have to sell [from the collections].”
Bruce Tattersall, a former curator of the Wedgwood Museum, was despondent about the outcome of the hearing.
“I don’t think the museum has much chance and I’m not optimistic that the government will try to rescue it in the current financial climate,” he said.
“It would be a huge loss and would mean the collection would probably go to the US. “It is a disaster, but in a sense, it is a disaster that the museum has brought on itself.”
The museum collections have been valued at £20m and include two of only four existing first-day vases made at the Wedgwood factory in Etruria in 1769.
