THE decision that Wedgwood Museum's unique collection can be sold to help plug a £134 million pension fund deficit is "not the end of the road", according to administrators.

Trustees at the Barlaston museum and members of the Wedgwood family have vowed to fight to keep it from being sold to private collectors or other museums, and administrators at Begbies Traynor say they are exploring alternative options.

The museum went into administration in April 2010 after it was served with a £134 million claim from the Wedgwood Group Pension Plan.

Administrators Bob Young and Steve Currie sought a High Court hearing on whether the collection is an asset of the company – and could therefore be sold off to pay its creditors – or whether it is held in trust and protected.

After a three-day hearing in Birmingham earlier this year, Judge Charles Purle QC yesterday handed down his decision.

He said: "This is sad for those who would wish to preserve a collection of what everyone recognises is enormous national importance, but is the result of insolvency legislation combined with the very comprehensive pension protection that the state now provides."

Staff at the museum had been hopeful of a decision in their favour.

A spokesman for the museum's trustees said: "The decision comes as a huge disappointment. We have to some extent been in limbo over the past months with our management and staff unable to concentrate fully on our ambitious plans for the museum."

She thanked everyone who has shown support for the museum and added: "We remain confident that this will encourage all parties to now strive for a solution which will save the museum's collections for the nation and keep them on display at our award-winning museum."

Nick Wedgwood, a direct descendant of company founder Josiah, said: "Clearly there has been a family understanding over nearly 200 years that every gift was ring-fenced. "People like my mother and father would have been devastated, they gave everything to it.

"I think there is still the intention from the administrators that the collection be preserved, because there will clearly be very few real beneficiaries of this outcome.

"There now has to be a major campaign to save it for the nation."

Lord Howarth of Newport, a former Minister for the Arts, said: "This judgement is simply tragic. The Wedgwood Museum is one of the finest and most important independent museums in the country."

The collection has been valued at between £11.5 million and £18 million, but administrator Bob Young, from Begbies Traynor's Caverswall office, said that although the firm has to raise money to the value of the collection for distribution to creditors, they will try to avoid selling it. He said options include a Creditors' Voluntary Arrangement over three years, or a sale to benefactors who would allow the collection to remain where it is.

When Wedgwood collapsed in 2009 it had been thought the Pension Protection Fund would take over the scheme, but it could not accept it as five of its 7,500 members were employees of the still-solvent museum trust. Pension trustees say they had "no option" but to serve a claim on the museum.