The Heritage Lottery Fund has this week awarded £704,500 for the permanent display of the largest and most valuable Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

The 3,500-piece Staffordshire Hoard, which includes 7th-century gold and silver metalwork, has been on temporary display since September 2009 – two months after its discovery in a field near Lichfield.

The proposed gallery will showcase approximately 300 items and interpret the story of the hoard, the creation and use of the items, and their context within Anglo-Saxon culture.

Valued by independent experts at £3.3m the hoard is owned by Birmingham City Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

Director of Birmingham Museums Trust, Simon Cane, said: “The Staffordshire Hoard is our Tutankhamun; an internationally significant cultural and historical asset of such magnitude that it deserves the very best in its display.”