The British Museum said it had raised £3.5 million (€4.01m) to buy a gold heart pendant linked to Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon, with a crowdfunding campaign making up more than 10% of the total.
The pendant known as the Tudor Heart is "the only piece of jewellery of its kind" from Henry VIII's 24-year-long marriage to Catherine of Aragon (also spelt Katherine), the museum said.
The marriage ended acrimoniously in 1533 with Henry VIII annulling the union, eventually splitting from the Roman Catholic Church and going on to have five other ill-fated marriages.
The British Museum said it had secured funding "to acquire the Tudor Heart pendant for its permanent collection, ensuring it will be on public display for generations to come".
"This beautiful survivor tells us about a piece of English history few of us knew, but in which we can all now share," said British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan.
According to the institution, "almost no other objects survive that celebrate Henry and Katherine's relationship, most having been lost over time".
The 24-carat-gold pendant displays a white and red Tudor rose, a symbol of Henry's dynasty, entwined with a pomegranate, which was Catherine's personal emblem.
A banner below reads "tousiors", the old French word for "always", and the reverse of the pendant shows the letters "H" and "K" - thought to refer to the king and his first wife.
"The heart shows both the luxury of Henry VIII's earlier reign and the strength of their union before it was ultimately annulled in 1533," the museum said in a press release.
The museum's research showed that the pendant could have been created to mark the betrothal of their daughter, Princess Mary, to the French heir apparent in 1518.
It was discovered by a café owner from Birmingham who was using a metal detector at the site of a dried-up pond in Warwickshire, northwest of London, in 2019.
The British Museum, which has the largest permanent collection in the world, launched a fundraising campaign in October to keep the pendant on permanent display and prevent it from being acquired by a private collector.
Over 45,000 people gave individual donations to the appeal amounting to £380,000, with the National Heritage Memorial Fund awarding £1.75 million.
