British Museum Raises Millions to Save Rare Tudor Pendant

By Annie Davidson Watson | February 17, 2026

To ensure that a piece of 24k gold jewelry that survived the famously messy end of a royal marriage—and nearly 500 years since then—won’t disappear into a private collection, the British Museum has raised around £3.5 million (more than $4.7 million) to acquire the Tudor Heart, a pendant necklace connected to King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

The fundraising effort, launched after the Tudor Heart was discovered by a metal detectorist in a Warwickshire field in 2019, was bolstered by a £1.75 million grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and significant contributions by the Julia Rausing Trust and Art Fund, the museum said. More than 45,000 individual donors contributed £380,000 to close the gap toward the fundraising goal.

Featuring a heart-shape pendant with intricate enamel work on a 75-link gold chain, the Tudor piece is considered a prime example of early 16th-century goldsmithing. Research suggests it may have been commissioned for a 1518 tournament celebrating the betrothal of Henry VIII and Catherine’s daughter, the future Queen Mary.

Tudor heart

One side of the heart pendant depicts a white and red Tudor rose entwined with a pomegranate bush, which was Catherine of Aragon’s personal emblem. On the reverse, the red initials H and K are bound with white thread. A golden banner that reads tousiors, an Old French play on the word for always, appears on both sides.

Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum, noted that the fundraising campaign’s success reflects “the power of history to spark the imagination and why objects like the Tudor Heart should be in a museum.”

The jewel is now on display in the museum’s Collecting the World gallery. Its chain is the only known example of the type of royal necklaces shown in portraits of Henry VIII and his wives by Hans Holbein the Younger.

(Photos courtesy of British Museum)

Follow me on Instagram: @anniedavidsonwatson