BRITAIN’S most famous treasure haul, the Staffordshire Hoard, is being packaged up ready leave its Birmingham home to go to America for a four-month exhibition.
A total of 117 items from the world-famous haul of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver will be put on display at the National Geographic Exhibition Centre in Washington DC.
And Birmingham Museum chiefs hope it will not only raise interest across the pond but inspire more transatlantic visitors to come to Birmingham and Staffordshire to view the region’s rich history.
Many of the star artefacts, including the famous folded cross, the millefiori stud, the stylised seahorse and the helmet cheek piece are being carefully wrapped up and boxed for the flight and will arrive in Washington ready for the ‘Anglo-Saxon Hoard: Gold from England’s Dark Ages’ exhibition which opens on October 29.
It is a similar exhibition to the one which recently toured the Mercian Trail visiting Tamworth, Lichfield and Stafford.
The exhibition coincides with a major feature and documentary which will be published and shown by National Geographic in November.
Hoard conservation project manager at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Deborah Cane said: “We’re hoping the Americans will be grabbed by this and we will be able to put the Midlands and the Mercian trail on the tourist map.”
Curators from Birmingham and the Potteries Museum in Stoke, which jointly own the Hoard, are travelling with the treasure and helping to set up the exhibition, which is being funded by National Geographic.
