Latest News | 20 September 2021
Derby Ram Trail raises over £300K
Thirty colourful large ram sculptures from the Derby Ram Trail have gone under the hammer, raising over £300,000 for Derby Museums’ Endowment.
The £150,000 proceeds from the auction will be doubled with match funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and donated to Derby Museums’ Endowment, helping to care for Derby’s important heritage to inspire our future generations.
Tensions ran high at the Museum of Making as each ram went up for auction with a couple of the rams reaching prices of over £10,000! The rams will now go to their forever homes and although most will go to private locations a number will remain on public display.
The exciting evening was hosted by BBC Radio Derby’s Andy Twigge, with local celebrity auctioneer Charles Hanson auctioning off the rams.
The successful fundraising from the Derby Ram Trail means that Derby Museums has now raised over £750,000 towards its £1m Endowment Campaign target with the final £250,000 needing to be raised by September 2022 to make the most of the match funding grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Tony Butler, Executive Director, Derby Museums says: “We are delighted with the total raised from the auction which exceeded our expectations and will make such a fantastic contribution to our Endowment target, helping to secure our future so we can continue to keep our museums free to inspire the generations of the future.
“Thank you to all sponsors, artists and visitors for their commitment to making the trail such a fantastic success after such a difficult time”
Charlie Langhorne, Co-founder and Managing Director of Wild in Art says: “As one of the first Wild in Art Trail auctions to take place after the lockdowns it is fabulous to see how the city has taken the rams to their hearts and supported the auction.”