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Ancient Egyptian coffin prepared for the Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum

Conservators at the British Museum preparing an ancient Egyptian coffin for display in the exhibition Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.

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Video transcript

British Museum conservators doing what they do best looking after objects that are thousands of years old Lin has found a loose piece of paint on this coffin that needs sealing down she applies white spirit to the Troublesome area so that the glue she is about to use will penetrate deep into the crack making a fine point on her brush she is ready to apply the glue the brush only needs to touch the cracked area and the glue is sucked up now all she needs to do is lightly rub her finger over some Japanese paper and the cracked paint is history