Stolen Abbot's Kneecap Returned to Glastonbury Abbey After 70 Years

In 1956, an 11-year-old George Box, on a school trip to Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset, England, stole a kneecap from an archaeological excavation and a shard of medieval tile. The kneecap belonged to one of three 13th-century abbots whose remains were being exhumed. Box kept the artifacts for decades, displaying them in a glass cabinet in his Australian home. After his death, his widow returned the kneecap to the Abbey, fulfilling a promise they had made. The Abbey's collections manager, Lucy Newman, noted that Box's widow described him as 'a bit of a scallywag.' The kneecap's exact owner remains unknown, as the Abbey decided not to re-excavate the reburied remains. The artifacts are now on display in the Glastonbury Abbey museum. Glastonbury Abbey, founded in the 7th century, became England's wealthiest monastery and is famous for the purported discovery of King Arthur and Guinevere's remains in 1191, though historians suggest this was a fabrication to attract pilgrims.