In addition to enabling the museum to display around 4,000 objects, some of which have never been publicly shown before, the grant will be used to restore a gallery space that has been closed for 35 years, and which will now house 12 mummies, double the number currently on view. “Until now, space restrictions have limited us from showing the full scope of our collections,” said Steve Judd, the World Museum’s director, a press release.

As part of the new display, the museum’s 4m-long Book of the Dead papyrus scroll from the tomb of Djed-Hor will be brought to life through a digital animation. Part of the gallery will also recreate the display as it looked before the Second World War; the museum was bombed during the Blitz in May 1941, causing the destruction of at least 3,000 artefacts from the Egyptian collection. New equipment will also be installed to regulate environmental conditions and the museum will share its recent research into the collection.

The Wolfson Foundation has been working with DCMS since 2000, providing funding to improve exhibition spaces, interpretation, and disabled access at museums across the country. The World Museum previously received a DCMS/Wolfson grant in 2007, which allowed it to refurbish the Egyptian galleries; since reopening in 2008, the installation has received over 2 million visitors.