Search is on for £3.3m to house largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard

The campaign, launched at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, aims to raise 3.3m to acquire the Staffordshire Hoard, which was found

in a field near Lichfield last summer.

If successful, the Hoard would be jointly acquired by both the Birmingham museum and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent.

Dr Starkey said it was vital the Hoard – comprising around 1,500 items made of gold, silver and precious stones – remained as one collection.

The historian said: "The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest and most valuable collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever – it's the most important find for over half a century, and, in terms of the history of Middle England, the most important ever.

"But break it up or move it and its meaning is lost. It must stay here, together and intact, to be studied and displayed here in the West Midlands, the foundation of whose history it will now become."

The campaign, being led by The Art Fund charity, aims to raise the required 3.3m by April 17.

The Art Fund's new Director, Dr Stephen Deuchar, kick-started the public appeal by announcing an initial Art Fund grant of 300,000 and by unveiling the official donation website at www.artfund.org/hoard.

Birmingham City Council, which runs Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, is giving an initial 100,000 towards the campaign, and Stoke-on-Trent City Council will also donate 100,000, bringing the sum already raised already to 500,000.