The leader of Staffordshire council has said the authority will do everything it can to keep the Anglo Saxon hoard in the county.
Coun Philip Atkins said the county would be working alongside Birmingham to bid for the world’s largest discovery of Anglo-Saxon treasure and have it permanently displayed.
He said the collection should be predominantly housed in Staffordshire but said he was also keen for it to be exhibited in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent.
Coun Atkins said: “Staffordshire County Council will play a full role in acquiring the hoard. We will do everything we can to bring the hoard home. This is our heritage and we need to do it justice. It is also important to note that this will be a partnership effort.
“Our neighbouring authorities in Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham have also expressed an interest in the acquisition.”
The hoard will remain on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until Sunday, October 11, when it will be passed to the British Museum to catalogue and value the find.
The British Museum has supported calls for a joint bid from the Birmingham and Staffordshire museums to take the hoard. The collection contains about 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, dwarfing the previous largest discovery, the Sutton Hoo find, in which 1.66kg of gold was uncovered.
More than 20,000 people, double its normal intake, have flocked to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery since about 60 of the 1,500 individual items discovered were unveiled there last week.
The city council has agreed to extend the museum’s opening times for two additional hours tomorrow from 9am to 6pm, and it will open one hour early from Monday to Friday next week. On Saturday, October 10, the museum is hosting a Light Night event in which it will open early at 9am and close at 11pm.
