HIGHLIGHTS from the most important Viking treasure to be found in 150 years will go on show for the first time this week in York.

The hoard was found in a field near Harrogate in January 2007 by Leeds father-and-son David and Andrew Whelan, using metal detectors.

Valued at more than £1 million it was jointly acquired this summer by the York Museums Trust and the British Museum in London.

On Friday the public can see the highlights of the remarkable find for the first time when a six-week exhibition opens at The Yorkshire Museum in Frederic Street.

Andrew Morrison, curator of archaeology, said: “We are thrilled that we have the privileged position of unveiling this incredible find to the public.

“It is an outstanding collection of gold and silver, but if you take into account the hoard’s story and the exotic locations some of the pieces came from, it is also a unique window into the lives and culture of Vikings life in Yorkshire.”

The hoard included coins, ingots and a spectacular gilt silver vessel, made in what is now France or western Germany around the middle of the ninth century.

It shows the diversity of cultural contacts in the medieval world, with objects coming from as far apart as Afghanistan in the East and Ireland in the West, as well as Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe.

The hoard was probably buried for safety by a wealthy Viking leader during the unrest that followed the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in AD 927 by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan.