Oldest dress in world to go on display in new museum

The world's oldest dress, once worn by an Egyptian aristocrat born in about 3000BC, is to be relocated and put ondisplay with the help of a £4.9m lottery grant.

Virtually forgotten for 65 years as part of a collection of antiques kept in two rooms above the boilers at University College London (UCL), it was considered worthless until a curator reassessed it in 1977.

The faded dress, which has delicate pleats at the neckline and sleeves, has not only withstood the test of time but has also managed to survive the risks of flooding and heat damage in the cramped university quarters. It is one of 80,000 items kept in the confined rooms of UCL's Petrie Museum.

It will be rehoused in a five-storey museum called the Panoptican, to be built beside the university's Bloomsbury Theatre. Liz Forgan, chairwoman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said the grant was vital in taking the treasure trove "out of the store cupboard for everyone to enjoy".

The dress, which was found in a heap of linen outside a robbed tomb near Tarkhan, 50 miles south of Cairo, was brought to Britain by the archaeologist William Flinders Petrie. Stephen Quirke, curator of the Petrie Museum, said: "It is a spectacular garment, which would have been worn by someone from the elite during the first dynasty of Pharaohs."