Call for The Public to have Hoard
The Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold should go on permanent display at the controversial art gallery The Public, a Black Country MP has said.
Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, has put down a motion in Parliament because he believed the Hoard should be easily available to people across the Midlands.
A campaign has been launched by councils in the region to raise more than £1million to buy the artefacts. Mr Watson said The Public in West Bromwich, which has cost £72m to build and open, was ideally suited for the exhibiting of priceless treasure and was well served by transport links.
He said that the interest in the 1,500 items by the public, who queued for four hours at a time to view it at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, had been huge.
"People flocked to see it at Birmingham but the West Bromwich building would be ideal because of the modern facilities at The Public and the town's extraordinary transport links," Mr Watson said. Earlier this week he accused the Arts Council of failing to live up to its responsibilities to The Public project.
Campaigns are under way by Birmingham, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent councils to keep the Hoard in the Midlands.
