Harrogate
An article in the Guardian newspaper on 28 February 2002 reported the rediscovery of Egyptian objects collected by Petrie now in the Harrogate Museum. These were identified by Joann Fletcher:
"Their private museum at the family home in Yorkshire attracted visitors from as far afield as Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the University of California. Although Benjamin Kent repeatedly lobbied for a municipal museum for Harrogate, this never materialised, and even when he left his antiquities to the town in 1968 there was a certain reluctance to accept responsibility for the "future financial burden.
The council finally accepted the bequest, but almost all the antiquities were in permanent storage for more than 30 years. It wasn't until staff began the enormous task of cataloguing their archaeology collection with the help of local volunteers that they called me in to "take a look at our Egyptian stuff". Crate after crate began to reveal the most wonderful artefacts that hadn't seen the light of day for years."
