London - Britain
After more than 200 years of being displayed to the public, the Manchester Museum in Britain removed the Egyptian mummy “ASRU” from the Egypt and Sudan Hall, and returned her body inside its closed outer coffin, in a decision that the museum said was largely consistent with what it understood of her wishes.

From Thebes to Manchester

Asro lived in southern Egypt about 2,700 years ago, and it is likely that she was buried in ancient Thebes, the area that is known today as the city of Luxor. Her coffins bear her name and the names of her parents, including her father, “Ba-Kush,” who worked as a writer. Her mummified body and coffins arrived in Manchester in the early 19th century, after they were acquired by merchants William and Robert Garnett, who then presented them to the Manchester Natural History Society in 1825. In April 1825, her body was unwrapped in Manchester, and it began to be displayed to the public, and it remained on display almost continuously for two centuries.

A decision based on funerary beliefs
The decision is not based on a will left by Asro or a direct expression from her, but rather on what the museum knows about funerary practices and beliefs in ancient Egypt, as Egyptians of her class in that era expected their mummified bodies to remain inside their coffins, wrapped and invisible to the living.

A broader review of mortal remains

The decision to remove “ASRO” was not separate from a broader review being conducted by the Manchester Museum regarding the way it handles the remains of the dead and the history of its collections. During the year 2025, the museum opened a discussion about the future of displaying her body, and surveyed visitors’ opinions, in addition to communicating with Egyptian researchers and representatives of the Egyptian community, before making the final decision.

Marwa Al-Hosary: Behind every mummy is a human being

Egyptian researcher Marwa Al-Hosary, from York University, believes that looking at “Asro” as a human being who lived and died, and not just a mummy behind a glass box, poses an ethical question about the museum’s right to keep her body exposed to visitors.

Are you leaving "ASRO" permanently?
Removing “ASRO” from the exhibition hall does not mean that the museum has decided its final fate. It is currently located inside its warehouses in its closed outer coffin, but the museum confirms that this place is not necessarily its permanent location. The museum is looking into more appropriate ways to care for human remains, and this may mean providing more respectful places for them within the museum, or in other cases examining the possibility of returning the remains to their original communities.

The importance of the decision for the Arab visitor

This decision represents an important shift in the way Western museums deal with Egyptian antiquities, which is of interest to Arab and Egyptian visitors in particular, as it restores respect to the dignity of ancestors and their funerary beliefs. It also opens the door to broader demands for the return of Egyptian artifacts to their mother country, a discussion that Arab tourists follow with increasing interest whenever they visit European museums and see treasures from their history hanging on their walls.