Two fingers and a tooth that were removed from Galileo corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century were assumed lost for good. They have been found again and will be on display.

Three fingers, a vertebra and a tooth were removed from Galileo’s body by admirers in 1737 (95 years after his death) as his corpse was being moved from a storage place to a monumental tomb (with cardboard displays perhaps?).

One of the fingers was found soon afterward. The vertebra has been at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught for years. But the tooth and two fingers were kept by one of the admirers.

The container recently appeared at auction and was purchased by a private collector who did not know exactly what the contents were except that they were Galileo’s relics.