Mr Ondaatje has filled the house with the collection of Sri Lankan antiquities he had begun as a schoolboy old maps and prints of Colombo, talipot palm-leaf manuscripts, bird paintings from the Calcutta school, pre-colonial furniture, betel-nut cutters, swords, knives and firearms.

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Highlights of its vast collection are the ancient Egyptian mummies, its Roman and Greek antiquities, the Rosetta Stone and the Anglo-Saxon treasures of Sutton Hoo.

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Mr. Rush said that the campus's now-closed Kresge museum will move its collection, including 7, 000 objects of Greek and Roman antiquities, Old Master paintings and 20th-century sculpture, into the new space.

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