A longstanding legal wrangle between a trust and Plymouth City Council could result in a Victorian pharmaceutical collection being removed from public view and broken up.
The CJ Park Pharmacy collection, which consists of historic shop fittings and medicinal artefacts, is owned by the Park Pharmacy Trust and has been on display at the council-run Merchant’s House museum since the early-1980s.
But the collection was seized by bailiffs last month, and as Museums Journal went to press, was due to be sold at auction on 27 February.
The dispute came about after the trust took the council to judicial review in 2006. The trust lost and was ordered by the court to pay the council’s legal costs.
Jan Knight, chairwoman of the Park Pharmacy Trust, said it was trying to raise the funds to buy the collection and prevent it being sold. She added that the charity would try to stop the sale, and had made a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.
In a statement, Plymouth City Council said it had tried to buy the collection in order to keep it in the city, but permission had been denied.
“The high court decided that selling the collection through a public auction may raise more money than a private sale, after evidence on earlier insurance values of the collection was presented by the trust,” it added.
The CJ Park Pharmacy collection, which consists of historic shop fittings and medicinal artefacts, is owned by the Park Pharmacy Trust and has been on display at the council-run Merchant’s House museum since the early-1980s.
But the collection was seized by bailiffs last month, and as Museums Journal went to press, was due to be sold at auction on 27 February.
The dispute came about after the trust took the council to judicial review in 2006. The trust lost and was ordered by the court to pay the council’s legal costs.
Jan Knight, chairwoman of the Park Pharmacy Trust, said it was trying to raise the funds to buy the collection and prevent it being sold. She added that the charity would try to stop the sale, and had made a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.
In a statement, Plymouth City Council said it had tried to buy the collection in order to keep it in the city, but permission had been denied.
“The high court decided that selling the collection through a public auction may raise more money than a private sale, after evidence on earlier insurance values of the collection was presented by the trust,” it added.
