Art Inside Out: Gilded Book of the Dead

For the first time ever, lay eyes on one of the only complete and gilded Books of the Dead—the world’s finest existing copy.

In this episode of Art Inside Out, curator Yekaterina Barbash and conservators Ahmed Tarek and Josephine Jenks discuss the three-year restoration of this 21-foot papyrus. It is now on view in a special Spotlight within our refreshed gallery dedicated to ancient Egyptian funerary practices.

The gilded manuscript, dating between 340 and 57 B.C.E., holds nearly all 162 spells known from the longest versions. Unlike most surviving examples, it includes blank opening and closing pages that confirm its completeness.

Conservation and curatorial efforts have also revealed its original owner—Ankhmerwer, son of Taneferher (“the one beautiful of face”)—offering an extraordinary connection to a person who lived more than two millennia ago.