A full-length mummy shroud from Roman period Egypt was found after 80 years in Scottish museum collection.

Treasure unrecognized in museum for 80 years

A full-length mummy shroud from Roman period Egypt was found after 80 years in Scottish museum collection. It dates from ca. 9 B.C. (Full-length mummy shroud found after 80 years in Scottish museum collection).

The shroud, which dates to about 9BC, was found during "an in-depth assessment" of Egyptian collections. [...]  Dr Margaret Maitland, senior curator of ancient Mediterranean collections, found the folded shroud wrapped in brown parcel paper, with a note written by a past curator in a World War Two service envelope identifying the contents as having come from an ancient Egyptian tomb.The package had been stored since the mid-1940s.  Conservators gently humidified it so that the fibres became less dry and brittle. This allowed them to carefully unfold the shroud, a process which took almost 24 hours. A hieroglyphic inscription on the shroud revealed the identity of the owner to be the previously unknown son of the Roman-era high-official Montsuef and his wife Tanuat. Dr Maitland said: "To discover an object of this importance in our collections, and in such good condition, is a curator's dream. "Before we were able to unfold the textile, tantalising glimpses of colourful painted details suggested that it might be a mummy shroud, but none of us could have imagined the remarkable figure that would greet us when we were finally able to unroll it. "The shroud is a very rare object in superb condition and is executed in a highly-unusual artistic style, suggestive of Roman period Egyptian art, yet still very distinctive."

One wonders how many other objects are mouldeing unrecognixczed in crowdwd museum stores. Far better would be to release such duplicate material onto the market to allow collectors to look after and study this sort of material.