The British Museum has successfully raised £3.5 million ($4.8 million) to acquire a rare 16th-century gold 'Tudor Heart' pendant, discovered by a metal detectorist in 2019. The pendant, linked to King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, will enter the museum's permanent collection and is expected to tour the UK.
The acquisition is significant as the pendant is a major archaeological find that illuminates Tudor courtly life, chivalric love, and the political and religious rupture of the era. It also represents a successful public fundraising effort to keep a nationally important treasure out of private hands and accessible to the public.