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Missing artifacts flagged by auditor recovered by Canadian Museum of History

Aug 11, 2023 | 1:01 PM

OTTAWA — The Canadian Museum of History says five items of historic significance that were deemed missing during a recent investigation by the auditor general have been recovered.

The Crown corporation is responsible for both the museum of the same name and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. 

In an report published Thursday, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada said the corporation does not have a robust way of keeping tabs on the four million items in the museums’ collections.

The audit says the museum had no plan to address the fact it had listed 800 items as missing between 2012 and 2022, at least five of them with significant historical value.

Today the museum says those five items have been found in their vaults, including three masks, a pair of moccasins and a backrest.

The museum corporation says most of the remaining missing items are from the war museum’s living history, dress and insignia collections and it is confident they are also located somewhere in the vaults.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2023.

The Canadian Press

<!– Photo: 20230811140832-64d67f46d6c4dacc01f0d36ejpeg.jpg, Caption:

The Museum of Canadian History says five items of historic significance that were deemed missing during a recent investigation by the auditor general have been recovered. The Canadian Museum of History is pictured from the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Que., on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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