Colleagues Together with some colleagues, I am drafting a letter to The Guardian concerning the imminent threat to the Wedgwood collections. If anyone would like to consider signing the letter, please let Peter Scott know (p.m.scott@reading.ac.uk). Cheers, Bernardo OPEN LETTER We the undersigned wish to express our concern regarding the threat to the preservation of the Wedgwood Museum and Archive ? as an integrated collection maintained within the UK. The threatened sale could result in the collection being broken up, passing into private hands, or going overseas. Each of these outcomes would be a disaster for Britain?s industrial and artistic heritage. The Wedgwood Museum & Archive preserves the design, production, organisational, and social histories of one of the world?s leading ceramics manufacturers. It represents a flagship collection for the history of British consumer goods industries; a testimony to one of the most brilliant designers, technologists, and industrial artists of the eighteenth century; and a key part of Britain?s industrial and artistic heritage. Yet, in contrast to the high priority and profile given to campaigns to save various paintings for the nation, this important collection appears to be relatively neglected by a national art establishment which seems more interested in individual high priced works by overseas painters than in saving the artistic legacy of both Josiah Wedgwood and the numerous individual artists and craftsmen who worked for Wedgewood from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. For a country which prides itself as leading the world in creative industries and in producing high quality art for a broad market, this seems to be an unfortunate set of priorities. -- Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, FRHistS Athro Hanes Busnes ac Rheolaeth Bancio / Professor of Business History and Bank Management Ysgol Busnes Bangor Business School Prifysgol Bangor University Gwynedd LL57 2DG (Cymru / Wales) b.batiz-lazo [at] bangor.ac.uk Twitter @BatizLazo ffon / phone : +44 (0) 1248 388349 Home page: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/business/staff/bernardo_batiz-lazo.en.php Working papers: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba14.html Blog: http://www.nephis.org