Pocklington District Heritage Trust said it will be able to show the early gold and garnet cloisonné panel and bring it back to where it was originally found thanks to a well-supported crowd funding appeal.
Trust bosses said the piece was discovered near Pocklington in March 2013 and purchased at auction in London in 2024 by an overseas buyer.
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A trust spokesperson said: “After consultation with the British Museum, the Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced in January that it was imposing an export bar to give UK institutions the chance to keep it in the country.”
A report by the reviewing committee of Arts Council England on the export of works of art and objects of cultural interest, which advises the DCMS said: “The near Pocklington find is of outstanding significance for its potential insights into the relationship between two major kingdoms during a formative period of political, cultural and religious development in England.
“It has implications for knowledge of workshop practices, collaboration and exchange, and expressions of elite political and cultural identity between north and south.
“Alongside these nationally and internationally important themes, the object also carries notable regional significance to Yorkshire, evoking its place both within England and Britain, as well as the wider world.
“As such, the object has a great deal to offer both research and public engagement if acquired for a museum collection.”
Trust chairman, Phil Gilbank, said: “This is marvellous news and we owe a massive thank you to everyone who donated.
“It was a real battle to meet the strict government criteria, plus we were competing with established institutions, but it is great that we will be able to bring the piece back to where it was found.
“We are thinking of calling it the ‘Pocela Panel’ as it dates to AD 600-670, which is when it’s believed Pocklington took its name from its leader, an Anglo-Saxon thegn, or aristocratic retainer of the King – called Pocela.
“However, there is still a way to go before it ends up back in Yorkshire, we have to arrange condition surveys and negotiate with other local museums to put in on public display it until we are ready to give it a permanent home in Pocklington.
“A great quantity of finds and information from the Anglo-Saxon and Viking eras has come out of the district around Pocklington in recent years, and we are looking forward to making the Pocela Panel a prize exhibit and a focal point for more research.”
The Trust said the tiny panel has been damaged in antiquity but nevertheless, it is described by experts as a ‘wonderful artefact’, and one of only three gold and garnet cloisonné pieces found in eastern Yorkshire, with the gold believed to have been brought from the Continent and garnets from Sri Lanka.
Although the heritage trust does not yet have a museum, it said it is currently working on creating a facility in Pocklington’s Burnby Hall, and decided the panel was too important a part of the town’s Anglo-Saxon origins to let go.
As reported The Press, a crowd funding appeal for the £4,000 valuation was created by Pocklington District Heritage Trust.
The appeal reached its target within two weeks with 150 people making donations, and it was able to enter the bidding process.
