Pharaoh’s 3,000-year-old gold bracelet vanishes from museum in Egypt, authorities say

A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet has gone lacking from a restoration laboratory of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, the nation’s antiquities ministry mentioned.

The bracelet, described as a golden band adorned with “spherical lapis lazuli beads,” belonged to King Amenemope, a pharaoh of Egypt’s twenty first Dynasty (1070-945 BC).

The ministry, in its assertion issued late Tuesday, didn’t specify when the piece was final seen.

Egyptian media retailers mentioned the loss was detected in latest days throughout a listing verify, although this might not be confirmed.

An inside probe has been opened, and antiquities models throughout all Egyptian airports, seaports and land border crossings nationwide have been alerted, the ministry mentioned.

“As well as, a picture of the lacking bracelet has been circulated to antiquities models throughout all Egyptian airports, seaports, and land border crossings nationwide as a precautionary step to stop smuggling makes an attempt,” the ministry mentioned, whereas posting an picture of the bracelet on social media.

The case was not introduced instantly to permit investigations to proceed, and a full stock of the lab’s contents was underway, it added.

The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Sq. homes greater than 170,000 artifacts, together with the famed gold funerary masks of King Amenemope.

The information of the bracelet got here on the identical day authorities in France introduced that thieves stole gold samples value $700,000 from Paris’s Pure Historical past Museum.

The bracelet’s disappearance additionally comes simply weeks earlier than the scheduled Nov. 1 inauguration of the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum.

One of many museum’s most iconic collections — the treasures of King Tutankhamun’s tomb — is being ready for switch forward of the opening, which is being positioned as a serious cultural milestone underneath President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s authorities.

In 2021, Egypt staged a high-profile parade transferring 22 royal mummies, together with Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut, to the Nationwide Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Previous Cairo — a part of a broader effort to spice up Egypt’s museum infrastructure and tourism attraction.

Earlier this 12 months, the US returned to Egypt 25 stolen artifacts, together with fragments of what’s believed to be a temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The uncommon items — spanning centuries of Egyptian civilization — had been handed over following a three-year restoration effort by Egypt’s consulate in New York.