The British Museum announced that it has successfully raised £3.5 million ($4.8 million) to acquire the “Tudor Heart” pendant and keep the centuries-old object in the UK.
The museum described the Tudor Heart as “unlike any object in the British Museum collection or elsewhere in the UK.” The 24-carat-gold pendant, which is accompanied by a 75-link gold chain, is currently the only known piece of jewelry to survive from the period of Henry VIII’s reign during his 24-year marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon.
The British Museum first began its fundraiser last October after securing a £500,000 donation from the Julia Rausing Trust. The museum also launched a public appeal to which anyone could donate toward the remaining £3 million needed to acquire it. The museum also tapped actor Damian Lewis to help with its campaign.
Over 45,000 people donated to the campaign, with their combined contributions totaling £380,000 ($519,000), or over 10 percent of the total needed. Additional donations included £400,000 from the Art Fund and £300,000 from the American Friends of the British Museum.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund, which was founded 45 years ago as “a fund of last resort for the UK’s most exceptional heritage,” per a release, donated the final £1.75 million to help the campaign achieve its goal two months before the April 2026 deadline. Were the British Museum unable to have raised the funds by the deadline, ownership of the pendant would have reverted to the metal detectorist who discovered it.
“The Tudor Heart is an extraordinary insight into the culture of Henry VIII’s court, and I am delighted that Memorial Fund support will enable it to go on public display, where people can enjoy it and learn what it tells us about this fascinating period in our history,” Simon Thurley, the Fund’s chair, said in a statement, noting that it has helped support the acquisition of nearly 1,500 objects. “We are delighted to count the Tudor Heart as part of the growing and timeless collection of UK heritage that belongs to all of us forever.”
The Tudor Heart pendant, attached to its 75-link gold chain, open to show both sides.
©The Trustees of the British Museum.
In a statement thanking those who contributed to the campaign, British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan said, “The success of the campaign shows the power of history to spark the imagination and why objects like the Tudor Heart should be in a museum. This beautiful survivor tells us about a piece of English history few of us knew, but in which we can all now share. I am looking forward to saying more soon on our plans for it to tour the UK in the future.”
After its discovery by a metal detectorist in December 2019 in Warwickshire in England’s West Midlands regions, the British Museum led research into the Tudor Heart, concluding that it was likely made to “celebrate the betrothal of their two-year-old daughter Princess Mary to the eight-month-old French heir-apparent in 1518,” per the appeal. Few objects from Henry and Katherine’s marriage, which was annulled in 1533, survive.
On one side of the pendant is the Tudor rose intertwined with a pomegranate bush, the personal emblem of Katherine, which represented fertility and nodded to her homeland of Spain. Below it reads tousiors, Old French for “toujours,” which translates to “always.” The other side of the pendant are the initials “H” and “K” (for Henry and Katherine) united by a tasseled cord, with tousiors also below.
Detail of the Tudor Heart, showing tousiors (Old French for “always”).
©The Trustees of the British Museum
The British Museum is currently working on a national tour for the Tudor Heart that would see it brought to a venue near where it was discovered in Warwickshire. It is currently on view at the museum.
“It has been a tremendous privilege to share the story of the Tudor Heart and its finding with the world,” Rachel King, curator of Renaissance Europe at the British Museum, said in a statement. “I have been enormously touched by the positive response to the Museum’s campaign. Thanks to the spectacular generosity of many, people will have the opportunity to enjoy the object forever and, I hope, unravel the mysteries of who wore it and why and how it came to be buried.”
