A public appeal has been launched to stop one of the Midlands’ prized ceramic collections from being sold off.
The Wedgwood Museum pottery collection faces going under the hammer to pay off the ceramics firm’s pension bill.
The museum in north Staffordshire went into administration in 2010 after the firm collapsed and its £134 million pension debts was transferred to the museum trust.
The Art Fund said it already had about £13 million to buy it but needed to raise a further £2.7 million by November 30 and feared the collection would be split up if it went to auction.
Waterford Wedgwood collapsed in January 2009 and its pensions liability of about 8,000 former Wedgwood workers was transferred to the museum.
Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar said it did not want to the collection “broken up and sold off on the open market”.
Carole Couter, chief executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said it had contributed about £5 million to the campaign.
She said: “As well as being a breathtaking collection of ceramics and a wonderful archive it shows how Josiah Wedgwood interacted with his peers, the influence he had and how his thinking led to a completely different approach to industrial manufacturing.”
The Art Fund said it planned to lease the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, if its bid was successful.
