Brothers search for heir for world-beating clock collection

A pair of cuckoo clock enthusiasts are seeking an heir to take on the world’s largest collection amid fears it could be broken up and lost when they die.

Roman and Maz Piekarski, who are brothers, have spent five decades sourcing 750 pendulum-driven devices, which are on display at their Cuckooland Museum in Cheshire.

The siblings are both unmarried and without children which has caused them to start a search for someone to take on their clock collection as a whole.

Roman said: “I’m 71 and Maz is 69, and we have not got anybody to leave it to. It’s the world’ s largest collection – and we have 750 of them.

“It would be wonderful if we could get someone to take it on, it really would be.”

Roman and Maz said they’d become fascinated with clocks as teens and went into the trade as apprentices after leaving school at 15.

At 28, Roman was told he had multiple sclerosis (MS) and was given just three years to live. From there, the brothers decided to travel all around the world hunting down unique timepieces while trying to beat rival collectors from the US and Germany.

But after amassing the world’s largest collection at their museum, in Tabley, Cheshire, they now have no sons or daughters to leave it to.

Roman said: “When I copped MS I said to my brother, I’m going to stick with what I’m doing. I wasn’t going to get married because I didn’t want to burden anybody.

“I was given three years to live, but I’m still here today – 43 years on.

“For the last four years, I have been making small inquiries as to finding a body who could take it over. But I’ve not found a single person who could come in and run it.”

Roman said he’d approached various people about taking on the collection but had not received any offers – despite getting praise from specialists and visitors.

He added: “The British Museum got in touch with us, and they said, ‘if we could lift your place and put it in our place, that would be the best thing we could do’.”