Bones and Roman brooch to go in museum clear-out

A museum is set to dispose of items it no longer needs, including human bones and a Roman jewellery piece.

Reading Museum, which is run by Reading Borough Council, said it had identified 33 items that are either damaged, in poor condition or are duplicates.

The disposal is part of a wider project to assess and move almost 500,000 objects to a new collection store.

Simon Smith, the council's library and museum manager, said he did not yet know what would happen to the items but the aim was to "keep things within the museum sector if possible".

The museum in Reading Town Hall is free to enter and contains items of interest including artefacts from Roman Silchester, a Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin collection and a Victorian replica of the Bayeux Tapestry that depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The items set for disposal were identified as having no further use for display, education, or research, or would be more appropriate for a collection at another museum.

They include human bones with either no or unclear provenance, part of a Roman bronze brooch which is incomplete and too damaged to be of further use, and duplicate collectable ale bottles.

Councillors decided to dispose of the items at a recent meeting.

Councillor Jan Gavin asked what was meant by the term "disposal".

Mr Smith said: "If they are not suitable to be in the museum sector for whatever reason, because they are of low value, broken or damaged, then we do dispose of things occasionally through auctioneers.

"I don't know where each of these items is destined for, but it is all in line with the policy."

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