IN dusty storerooms around the city, row upon row of old artwork and artefacts – from bird skeletons and broken pieces of Roman pottery to original oil paintings – lie hidden from view.

Derby City Council estimates that at any one time, only 10% of the hundreds of thousands of items it owns are on display in Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Pickford's House Museum or the Silk Mill Museum.

It has placed pieces of art in other public buildings, such as a painting of the Market Place in the Guildhall and others in the Council House.

But it wants more people to see more of its collection.

It had hoped a bid to the National Lottery for £5m would enable the council to go ahead with £13.3m plans to vastly improve the Silk Mill, so more items could go on display.

But the bid was unsuccessful, forcing the authority to think of more unusual and creative ways to get art out of storage.

So far, the council has come up with ideas including carrying a selection of smaller items in suitcases to set up mini-exhibitions in libraries around the city.

It has also set up miniature displays in new libraries being built, such as the one in Allenton.

However, it wants to find ways not only of getting art on display but of bringing in money to the council.

That is why it is finalising the details of a scheme which would see it hire out objects to businesses in the city and perhaps further afield.

Councillor Joe Naitta, the council's cabinet member for leisure and culture , said: "It is a real shame that we have some beautiful things that are not on display and we are looking at businesses to see if they would like to hire some of the items.

"We are thinking particularly about companies with their own small museums that would like items relating to their business, such as Royal Crown Derby.

"We have to look at it carefully in terms of security but I am really keen to get things on display.

"I was quite shocked when I came to this role by the amount that we don't have on display and I would like to see that changed."

The corporate sponsorship idea is one which has been used in Reading since 1998.

There, around 14 companies, ranging from solicitors to hotels, hire objects from Reading Museum to display in purpose-made display cases.

Julia Shelley, lending and access manager at the museum, said: "We lend objects from Bronze Age swords to ancient Greek vases.

"We call them 'flying objects' and they are packaged in cases we build ourselves here at the museum.

"Companies want something historical and prestigious in their offices.

"For us it is great, because our branding is on the cases, so it lets people know about the museum and the money goes towards covering the cost of the scheme and education services for schools which the museum runs."

Derby's collection of artefacts was given a boost in 1879 with the opening of the museum which featured the building's now famous Egyptian mummies, although there were a number of recorded exhibitions dating from the 1860s.

Jonathan Wallis, assistant head of museums at Derby City Council, said a number of items would not necessarily be of wide public interest and are instead stored for research and future generations.

"We have quite a lot of archaeological material from excavations.

"For example, there will be fragments of pottery we will use for handling and some rare items which will be quite useful for study purposes but may be broken and not the best for display."

There are also some pieces too fragile to be displayed continuously, such as drawings, watercolours and other works that can be damaged by exposure to light.

But the significance of many other objects in the city's collection is widely acknowledged, and artwork from Derby has gone around the world.

A selection of Joseph Wright paintings was recently loaned to a gallery in Milan, while material from Derby on Bonnie Prince Charlie is on display at the Culloden Battlefield Museum and work is currently in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery as part of the Matthew Boulton Exhibition.

They are often displayed in special exhibitions at different times and in different locations – that includes the current "Objects of Devotion" exhibition at Derby Museum and Art Gallery as well as loans to the Cathedral Centre in Derby.

The council has not yet decided how the money raised by renting objects would be used.

The corporate art package scheme could be launched in October but Mr Naitta is also inviting the public to come up with ideas of where and how they would like to see items on display.

"I would like to ask the public to think about this issue of where we can display things because it is a good question and we don't have all the answers," he said.