A new Birmingham exhibition of the world famous Staffordshire Hoard, featuring never before seen artefacts, is attracting over 1,000 visitors a day.
With detailed conservation work set to begin next month, global interest in the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found shows no sign of easing up.
Twenty new artefacts are now on display in Gallery 16 on Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, while already seen artefacts are now displayed to greater effect.
And Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture Cllr Martin Mullaney is not surprised the new exhibition, which opened on July 24, is proving to be a hit.
He said: “Interest in the Hoard has been phenomenal and with the new exhibition we’ve been able to exhibit artefacts to much greater effect.
“More pieces than ever are now on display and over the coming months we hope to keep refreshing the exhibition, changing things around or adding new pieces.
“Effectively from now on, over the next year, we hope the display will be constantly changing.”
Last month Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent transferred £3.3 million to the British Museum for the joint acquisition of the Hoard.
A lengthy process of conservation work will get underway next month and curator David Symons added: “With over 2,000 pieces, that’s going to be quite a job. We can’t just dump everything in buckets and scrub it. Everything’s got to be looked at and very carefully assessed.
“We’re looking for environmental evidence that might exist, organic evidence and so on. That process is going to take a couple of years and I’m sure the huge worldwide interest in this hoard will continue.
“We’re also planning for the longer term displays that we have here at BMAG and in Stoke and we’re talking to other partners about trying to set up what we’re calling the Mercian Trail, so that material from the Hoard will be in other venues and people will be able to go to other Saxon sites and see the Hoard in greater context.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
A selection of Staffordshire Hoard artefacts is now on display in Gallery 16 of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=892&start=9
New items on display include:
- Gold buckle
- Torn gold hilt plate
- Gold plaque with animal interlace
- Gold Mound – bird and fish
Click on the following link for Staffordshire Hoard images – http://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghammag/sets/72157622327837525/
Hoard Appeal
Thanks to the support of the public, trusts and foundations, and a generous £1,285,000 National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) grant, the find has now been safely secured for Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and the Stoke Museums.
A further £1.7 million is required to create long-term displays in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent and to fund the conservation and research needed to unlock the wealth of information the Hoard holds about the history of Mercia and of Anglo-Saxon England.
Questions and answers about the Staffordshire Hoard fundraising campaign can be downloaded as a word document or as a pdf.
For further information contact Geoff Coleman on 0121 303 3501
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