BOSSES at the York Dungeon were left scratching their heads after a shop assistant sold a real skull to a customer.

The sale was made by retail supervisor Natalie Edwards when a visitor spotted the cranium on a bookshelf.

Now the museum is desperately trying to trace the buyer after the mistake was spotted.

Natalie said: "The woman said she wanted it for her son's Christmas present because he collects skulls.

"I asked £30 for it. I feel a bit daft now, especially after finding out it was worth considerably more than that."

The skull had been left on the bookshelf while a new prop, which it was to be a part of, was being built in the dungeon.

Natalie had thought it was a £30 fake skull, which the shop sells.

But this one has been at the dungeon since it opened in 1986.

It is one of a pair owned by the visitor attraction, the other one being donated by the widower of an archaeologist who had found it in a plague pit.

But the origins of the missing one are not known.

The buyer's credit card company has promised to get a message to the customer asking her to contact the dungeon.

Dungeon manager Helen Douglas said: "We don't normally sell our props, and we certainly would not intend to sell this one. We are frantic to get it back."

Updated: 10:56 Tuesday, October 01, 2002