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Date	Original Topic
7th January 2005	V.C Auction By Phil Pearce Further to the question asked about Pte R. Jones V.C by Melanie. When Robert Jones V.C came onto the market in the late 1990's many of we family members tried with only two weeks real notice to raise the cash to buy it. We Knew the guide price was around £75000 to £100000 but we tried anyway. Our aim was to get Cross & donate it to the museum in Brecon. A time sped on we grew quite exited at the amount being pledged. However we fell short of only several thousand of making a serious bid. One organisation who we approached to help with the bid was the Museum in Brecon. Suprisingly the response we received was negative. We were told that although the museum would be very interested in getting the V.C as a donation they did not have the money to assist nor any interest in bidding themselves. Imagin our supprise to find out that they had bid ! Also that it was widely published that the museum had been outbid. I have often wondered if their bid was a serious one or if they made one of an undisclosed amount to save face. Perhaps after several years someone from the museum could let us all know how much they actually bid. Also why did the family of Robert jones get the ' brush off ' from the museum. Before answering remember that the museum PUBLICALLY stated they would not be bidding & privatly said the same to several family members. Why all the cloak & daggar routine ? Perhaps after all this time the curator could assist .How about it Martin?
Date	Replies
7th January 2005	Martin Everett Dear Phil, I too saw the newspaper reports about the museum being outbid - which was a great surprise me. I can state firmly that we did NOT bid for the Robert Jones's medal group which what we said before the auction. So many times these days, newspapers get it wrong in search of a headline story. You can forget this story - it has absolutely no substance.
11th January 2005	Phil Pearce Thank you Martin , Aas well as the papers getting this incorrect so has this site !! Click on my Gt. grand dad name on the left , then click onto the story of ' his tragic death @ at the bottom you will see the same statement of you being outbid. Perhaps you should correct Alan on this. Then perhaps he could correct the site by stating it was the family who were outbid not you. Afterall we did manage to secure £47,000 towards it with the sole intent of donating it to your establishment. Whats more it was bloody hard work to raise this much in 14 days as you can imagin ! Time to put credit where it is rightly due perhaps ? Do not seekmit for myself , I was one of many . But do not see why the S.W.B Museum should get the credit. Think you will agree. Also if the museum did not bid about time the staff in your establishment who answer the phones stopped perpetuating the incorrect story. Before making the above posting I tried to obtain the info from the museum ( again ) . Only to be told over the phone that it was belived the museum was outbid but by what amount was unknown. Whats more perhaps we can ask Alan where he got this info from. Best wishes Phil
12th January 2005	Martin Everett Dear Phil, Lets try and bring this to a close. If you are unhappy about the text used on this site about pte Robert Jones VC then contact [email protected] When the possibility of Robert Jones's medal group can up for auction we explored all possibilities to obtain funding - Heritage Lottery and V&A grant funding - most will only 50% of cost. We would found it extremely difficult to fund the balance. I also know of the hard work put in by the family at the time. However, main reason that we never bid is that we were not confident of being succesful. The sucessful bidder current owner has at least 75 VCs in his collection. And vast amount of resources to fuel his ambition. He would just have kept bidding above any limit we may of had. Our assessment has been proved correct on later auctions. I have asked my staff and none of them recalls you recently contacting the museum about this issue. We do receive a large number of calls each and is possible that someone got it wrong in 'the heat of the moment'