Staffordshire Hoard to go on tour - Museums Association

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Staffordshire Hoard to go on tour

Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent in discussions over world tour
A selection of pieces from the Staffordshire Hoard may go on show in museums worldwide as part of an international tour.

Birmingham City Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council, the joint owners of the Anglo Saxon treasure trove, say that they are in discussions about sending the seventh-century artefacts abroad.

“Birmingham Museums and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery [in Stoke-on-Trent] are considering plans for engaging a wide and diverse audience; these plans include a potential world tour. These plans are still in their early planning discussions,” said a spokeswoman for Birmingham Museums.

Stoke-on-Trent city councillor Adrian Knapper told local press that a tour “could raise funds for our museum service”.

The council is, meanwhile, reportedly planning to spend up to £10,000 on market research to “assess the potential market” for a global tour. A spokesman for Stoke-on-Trent city council declined to comment on the cost.

In 2011, an exhibition of 100 items from the 3,500-piece hoard opened at the National Geographic Museum in Washington DC.

The treasures were discovered in a field near the village of Hammerwich in Staffordshire in 2009. The hoard, valued at £3.3m, was acquired in 2010 with funding from the Art Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

In October, the UK’s largest permanent display of the hoard opens at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery with the launch of a new gallery housing hundreds of pieces.



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