Museum jokers are a pair of Premiership chumps
BOSSES at Burton’s top tourist attraction are to launch an investigation after photographs of volunteers clowning around with a valuable football trophy were posted on a social networking website.
The pictures, leaked to the Mail, show two helpers at the National Brewery Centre, in Horninglow Street, posing with the FA Carling Premiership trophy, with one of them hoisting it aloft and the other wearing its decorative crown on his head.
The trophy, which is being prepared for display in a new exhibition, is part of a collection owned by town brewer Molson Coors, a legacy of its eight-year sponsorship of football’s top flight.
The source who leaked the pictures, who asked not to be named, said: “I was shocked to see images of museum staff parading a valuable item which due to its value was once flagged by two security officers and can only be handled by people wearing cotton gloves so as not to tarnish the metal with oils from the skin.
“I realise we all need to support the visitor centre but what safeguards are in place to ensure our heritage isn’t destroyed by their staff laughing around?”
Paula White, the centre’s general manager, told the Mail: “Having looked at the photographs we will be carrying out a full investigation to find out exactly what happened.
“The people in the pictures are volunteers who come in at the weekend to help us renovate, restore and look after our vehicles and exhibits.
“That’s why it’s such a shock because they’re the last people I would expect to behave like that. We are really disgusted.
“It was a very foolish thing to do because they are supposed to be looking after the exhibits.
“In future, we will be making sure that access is restricted and when they are allowed into these areas they are heavily supervised. We can guarantee this won’t happen again.”
The trophy, which was presented to winners of the Premier League during its sponsorship by Carling from 1993 to 2001, is kept in a locked cataloguing room to which volunteers have access to carry out their work.
It will be on show to the public at the centre as part of a new exhibition exploring brewers’ links with sporting competitions.
