Following the near fatal fire in the Smoking Cubicle last December, the Board of Trustees has now permanently banned smoking at the Museum of Miniature Found Objects. As a consequence, the MMFO is delighted to announce the former Smoking Cubicle will become the Conversation Saloon, using Carpathia+Chasm’s innovative design module, BioLogica. BioLogica creates an intimate 'feeling' space. As visitors step into the Conversation Saloon sensors detect their emotional state. The Saloon then initiates an interactive dialogue with the visitors on the basis of their current mood. The museum is delighted such a ground-breaking experience will shortly be available to all visitors, opening on Saturday 22 August.

The Museum of Miniature Found Objects is proud of the expertise and enthusiasm its staff brings to the field of museology. To keep the public in touch with the valuable work they undertake, the MMFO is presenting a series of interviews with staff members. This week, the MMFO talks to Rita Berg:

MMFO: What's your role at the museum and what does it involve?

RB: I work as the Keeper of Semi-Perishable Found Artefacts. When we receive a donation from a member of the public, it's my job to check it against the Criteria for Receiving – these are very important principles and were laid down by Sir Gideon Hythe-Gommerly in 1759, when the MMFO first opened its doors. So I feel a living connection with history each time I carry out a check!

MMFO: What's the best thing about working at the MMFO?

RB: I meet scholars from all corners of the world, who come to study our collection. We curators are quite an international tribe, you know!

MMFO: What's the worst thing?

MMFO: I'm responsible for accessioning donations. When I've catalogued an item, I take it down to the Storage Depository and it's really labyrinthine down there – a maze, in fact. Once I got trapped. I wasn't able to find my way out and I was locked in overnight!

MMFO: Which person, dead or alive, would you most like to meet?

RB: Sir Gideon Hythe-Gommerly, of course!

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Found objects:

= badge: 2.47pm, Tuesday 24 September 2013, Holloway Road, north London;

= Florival bottle top: 2.11pm, Monday 15 October 2018, Place Saint-Job, Brussels;

= frog: 9.03pm, down escalator to Piccadilly line, Holborn Station, 7.12pm, 1 October 2019, central London;

= green & blue organic form: 9.23am, Tuesday 22 October 2013, Holmdale Terrace, north London;

= green car: 4.47pm, Monday 30 July, Clissold Park Café, north London;

= orange animal form on books: 5.17pm, Tuesday 14 July 2015, Goswell Road, central London;

= torso of man: 4.27pm, Thursday 30 May 2019, Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, north London;

= yellow car: 3.16pm, Monday 10 December 2018, Hay’s Galleria, Battle Bridge Lane, London Bridge, south London.

A recent surge of news reports describes a mummy stalking Bloomsbury at night, in particular in the vicinity of the British Museum and the Museum of Miniature Found Objects. One witness, who declined to give his name, said he was standing outside the MMFO late on Thursday night waiting for a friend, when the mummy approached him from behind. On hearing the rustle of ancient bandages, he fled the scene. He said he has not been able to contact his friend since and has concerns for his safety. The police have increased the number of night patrols in the locality. The Museum of Miniature Found Objects would like to make clear these alleged sightings have no connection with the recent investigation into the jam residues found in the Egyptology Galleries at the British Museum.

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Found object:
= smiley face key ring: 5.22pm, Friday 17 May 2019, westbound Central Line train, Bank Tube Station, central London.

Mr and Mrs Arnold Dreefholt were delighted to find themselves the winners of this year's Survey Raffle. Mr and Mrs Dreefholt said the museum had been on their 'must-see' list for quite some years, but commitments in their home city of Buenos Aires has prevented them from visiting before now.  Mrs Dreefholt, a keen breeder of miniature donkeys, was especially taken with the dairy herd of Stott's Marvels in the Great Court and enjoyed a delicious milk-based beverage in the Palm Court Tea Rooms with her lunch.

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Found objects:
= bauble 1: 5.55pm, Friday 19 May 2017, Stansted Airport;

= bauble 2: 1.12pm, Saturday 11 February 2017, Bowden Market, Adelaide;

= bauble 3: 9.42am, Monday 21 October 2013, Harold Road, north London;

= bauble 4: 11.04am, Thursday 19 January 2012, Maya Angelou Court, Bailey Close, east London;

= bauble 5: 10.06pm Friday 23 October 2016, Charteris Road, north London;

= gold beads: 1.37pm, Saturday 22 July 2017, Somerset House, central London;
= pearl: 14:55, Saturday 13 October 2018, Place du Jeu de Balle, Marolles, Brussels.

The Museum of Miniature Found Objects is now conducting this year's survey on the quality of visitors' experiences at the museum. Visitors' views on the ever-popular exhibition and events programme are greatly valued, and staff wearing blue tabards are currently stationed at key points around the museum. They are enthusiastically seeking Visitor Experiential Encounters. Everyone is encouraged to stop and chat. For those participating in the survey, there's the chance to win a prize in the annual Survey Raffle!

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Found objects:

= knitted child’s toy: 6.37pm, Friday 3 August 2018, Paddington Station, Paddington, west London;
= metal & plastic clasp: 1.38pm, Tuesday 18 September 2018, women’s changing rooms, Highbury Pool, north London.

The Museum of Miniature Found Objects regrets to announce it has had no option but to call on the services of a private investigation agency. The British Museum has not proved as cooperative as hoped in the ongoing enquiries into the jam smears on the package found in the MMFO shop, and also at the Montague Place entrance to the British Museum. The agency's efforts have so far found additional evidence of the jam inside the British Museum itself, in the Egyptology Galleries. The British Museum was unavailable for comment earlier today.

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Found objects:
= Florival bottle top: 2.11pm, Monday 15 October 2018, Place Saint-Job, Uccle, Brussels;

= key 1: 1.12 pm, Wednesday 11 September 2019, Bomber Command Memorial, Green Park, central London;

= key 2: 11am, Saturday 30 March 2013, Homerton Railway Station, west-bound platform, east London;

= key 3: 10.01am, Thursday 31 May 2012, Roman Way, north London;

= key 4: 9.27pm, Thursday 25 August 2016, foot of the escalators to the Piccadilly Line, Leicester Square Tube Station, London;

= key 5: 10.36am, Monday 8 February, 2016, Woolston Close, east London.

Horatio Pont, Head of MMFO Global Merchandising, angrily spoke out last night after accusations of fraudulent behaviour appeared on social media. The allegations centred on the mysterious return of the Empress's Tears, the fourteenth-century Byzantine earring. Staff in the museum shop were also accused of collusion in the fraud. As Mr Pont explained to reporters, "My staff do not know who left the package. They simply don't have time to watch everything that goes on in the shop. There's been a surge in till activity since we started retailing the AFAC in kit form." In response to questions, Mr Pont said the MMFO is continuing to seek assistance from the British Museum to identify the traces of jam found at the site. The jam is believed to be connected to the earlier theft of the Byzantine earring.

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Found object:

= plastic seahorse: Eurostar platform, Gare du Nord, Paris.