£3.5m raised for gold pedant, with more than 10% from public donations
The British Museum has acquired a £3.5m pendant with help from tens of thousands of public donations.
Last October the museum launched a campaign to acquire the ‘Tudor Heart’, a gold pendant linked to Henry VIII and Katherine of Arago.
Over 45,000 members of the public donated to the campaign, raising £380,000, more than 10% of the total.
The pendant was discovered by a metal detectorist in 2019. Its acquisition will stop it from going into private ownership. The pendant will now enter the museum’s permanent collection.
British Museum launches bid to acquire £3.5m Henry VIII pendant
The campaign reached its target ahead of an April deadline with a £1.75m award from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, £500,000 from the Julia Rausing Trust, £400,000 from Art Fund, and contributions from the Rought Fund, and the American Friends of the British Museum which totaled £300,000.
The museum is now working on plans for a future national tour, including it being on display in Warwickshire, near to where it was found. It will now engage with DCMS on the payment of the reward to the finder and landowner and hopes to have the pedant formally in the collection later this year.
The museum’s director Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE said he was “looking forward to saying more soon” on plans for it to tour the UK.
The Tudor Heart will remain on view in Room 2: Collecting the world.
Research by the British Museum suggests the pendant may have been created for a tournament held in October 1518 to mark the betrothal of their daughter, Princess Mary, to the French heir apparent.
