Shackleton expedition artifacts to be donated to UK museums
by James Brooks, The Associated Press
Posted Dec 16, 2020 3:47 am EDT
Last Updated Dec 16, 2020 at 3:58 am EDT
LONDON A sledge and flag used in one of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famed expeditions to the South Pole have been bought by a British government-funded body to keep the treasured artefacts in the U.K.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund, a government-funded body, said Wednesday it paid 204,000 pounds ($274,000) to help purchase the two items, used in the first of three British Antarctic expeditions led by Shackleton in the early 1900s. The artifacts will be donated to two English museums.
James Brooks
A conservator surveys an eleven-foot wooden sledge used on Anglo-Irish explorer Ernest Shackletonâs British Antarctic Expedition, on a table at Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre, London, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. A sledge and flag once used in a famed 1900s expedition to the South Pole have been bought by a British government-funded body, preventing the treasured artefacts leaving the country to an overseas buyer. The National Heritage Memorial Fund, a government-funded body founded in 1980, said Wednesday it had provided 204,000 British pounds to help purchase the two items, which will be donated to two English museums. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
A sledge and flag used on explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famed attempt to reach the South Pole in the early 1900s will be put on show in London and Cambridge.
The artefacts had earlier been sold at auction to an overseas buyer, leading to the British Government to impose an export ban on the artefacts due to their national importance.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund, which is funded by the Government, said on Wednesday that the items had been acquired for the nation after it awarded a £204,700 grant.
The fund was set up “to save some of the UK’s finest heritage at risk of loss”, and the items will go to two UK museums.
LONDON A sled and flag used in one of explorer Ernest Shackleton s famed expeditions to the South Pole have been bought by a British government-funded body to keep the treasured artifacts in the U.K. The National Heritage Memorial Fund, a government-funded body, said Wednesday that it paid 204,000 pounds ($274,000) to help purchase the two items, used in the first of three British Antarctic expeditions led by Shackleton in the early 1900s. The artifacts will be donated to two English museums. Earlier this year, British authorities slapped a temporary export ban on the artifacts. The expedition was named Nimrod after the ship, which came within less than 100 miles (160 kilometres) of the South Pole for the first time in 1909. But before reaching their target, the explorers were forced to turn back, having stretched their rations to the limit.
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