Sale of Wedgwoood Collection completes
THE Wedgwood Collection of pottery, art and writing has been sold by administrators at Begbies Traynor to the Art Fund charity, following a successful public fundraising campaign aimed at keeping the works together.
The sale was in line with an agreement reached with creditors of the Wedgwood Museum Trust, which entered administration in 2009.
The Art Fund raised the required £15.75m through a combination of support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a high profile public fundraising appeal supported by TheBusinessDesk.com.
It was agreed that the Art Fund would purchase the collection and then gift it to the V&A Museum. The V&A will assume responsibility for the collection in perpetuity.
But while £13m was donated from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the remaining £2.75m had to be found through donations.
A flood of donations from the public and major donors raised more than £2m in the first three weeks of the campaign alone. North Staffordshire manufacturer JCB donated £100,000.
Recognising the national importance of the 80,000-piece collection, Bob Young and Steve Currie, of business recovery specialist Begbies Traynor’s Stoke-on-Trent office, worked to prevent the works from being broken up and sold at auction.
Young and Currie led negotiations involving creditors, culture minister Ed Vaizey, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund, reaching the deal to save the collection earlier this year.
It is expected that the V&A will loan the precious works to WWRD, which his owned the Wedgwood brand since 2009 and which continues to manufacture on the Wedgwood Estate in Barlaston, where the collection will remain.
Young said: “It was incredibly satisfying to finally sign the sale contract transferring ownership of the Wedgwood Collection to the Art Fund, which has done a tremendous job of rallying people in Staffordshire and across the country in support of this very important piece of British heritage.
“The transfer of ownership guarantees that people from Staffordshire and beyond will be able to continue to enjoy the Wedgwood Collection under one roof in its spiritual home in the Midlands.”
