LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Outstanding checks and unclaimed wages, not 2,000-year-old pottery and tribal spears, are usually what lands in the Unclaimed Property Division of State Treasurer Shane Osborn’s office.

But that’s exactly what the office recently got in a safety-deposit box it was given by a bank. Osborn’s office said earlier this week that the box also included an Egyptian mask from 2500 B.C.

An appraisal of the items pegged the value of the items at more than $200,000.

Osborn’s office conducted an extensive search for the owner. He was eventually found living at a hotel in Oregon where he was relying on food stamps.

He had run an antiques business in Lincoln before falling on hard times and eventually forgot about the safe-deposit box.

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State Treasurer’s Office: http://www.treasurer.org/index.asp

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AP-WS-10-29-09 1104EDT