ONLY a tiny fraction of the county’s publicly held works of art and historical artefacts are on display, a freedom of information request has revealed.

Herefordshire Council currently holds 180,000 objects in its museum collection and more than 4,000 items listed in its fine art collection.

But only 0.5% of the museum’s artefacts are on display while only 5% of the council held paintings are.

The combined value of the council’s collection is in the region of £2.8m while the total insurance value is almost £8m.

A council officer said: “The Herefordshire Museum Service Collections Development Policy 2016-2019 states that there are around 180,000 objects in the collection.

“An estimated 0.5% of the museum’s collections are on display.

“I am also advised that there are 4,047 items listed in the fine art collection.

“Less than 5% of the fine art collection is currently on display, although this figure may change from time to time due to temporary exhibitions drawn from the collection.”

The council does allow access to the collections to groups and individuals by appointment.

“The total value of the museum collection is included within the valuations which have been undertaken for the council’s heritage assets,” the officer added.

“This includes other artefacts that do not form part of the museum collection, but we are unable to separate out the value of the items in just the museum collection from this overall figure.

“The total insurance value is £7,946,960 and the value of the heritage assets is stated as being valued at £2.8m.”