This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-20595062
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
British Museum to acquire £1.3m Lacock cup from church | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
A Wiltshire church has been told it can sell an "extremely rare" £1.3m silver medieval chalice to the British Museum. | |
The Lacock Cup, which dates back to the 1400s, was loaned to the museum from St Cyriac's Church in Lacock in 1962. | |
The church now wants to sell the cup to raise funds for repairs, but this had been opposed by a local resident so a church court was set up to decide. | |
At the consistory court the Reverend Justin Gau said he was satisfied the sale circumstances were justified. | |
'Urgent work' | |
Geoffrey Fox, who objected to the sale, now has 28 days to consider whether or not he wants to appeal the decision. | |
He said he was "very disappointed" by the ruling. | |
A group of residents had campaigned against the sale believing the cup was a vital part of the village's heritage. | |
Church warden Tony Bruun said because St Cyriac's was a medieval church the maintenance needed was considerable. | |
He said the church had spent more than £400,000 over the past 10 years on repairs and maintenance and that figure did not include any restoration work. | |
"Every five years an architect makes recommendations for urgent work, work which can be done over the five years and restorative work," he added. | |
"[For example] this lady chapel has polychrome decoration and high-vaulted ceilings. All of this would be lovely to restore but that will cost a lot of money - about £60,000 which we don't have." | |
'Extremely rare' | |
In a statement, the British Museum said it would now launch a fundraising campaign to "acquire this important object for the nation". | |
"The Lacock cup is an extremely rare piece of medieval English silverware, with a history dating to the first half of the 15th Century," the museum continued. | |
"The cup, which is in near perfect condition, began its life as a secular object but its function changed after the English Reformation as new religious practices meant that a larger communion cup was required to hold sufficient wine for the whole congregation. | |
"As the cup has no religious imagery on it, it was a perfect substitute in a time when strict laws prohibited the use of images." |
Previous version
1
Next version