Authorities in Egypt are currently searching for a 3,000-year-old bracelet that has reportedly gone missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. This rare gold piece, featuring spherical lapis lazuli beads, dates back to the reign of King Amenemope, who ruled during the 21st Dynasty from 993 to 984 BC.
Following the bracelet’s disappearance from the museum’s restoration laboratory, the antiquities ministry has taken immediate action and referred the matter to the police. To bolster security, an image of the bracelet has been distributed to various points of entry across Egypt, including airports, seaports, and land border crossings, to deter any potential smuggling efforts.
In response to the incident, a specialist committee has been established to inventory and review all artifacts housed within the restoration laboratory. The ministry stated that it delayed the announcement regarding the bracelet’s disappearance to maintain an appropriate environment for ongoing investigations, although it did not specify when the bracelet was last recorded as present.
The disappearance was reportedly detected in recent days as museum staff prepared to ship several artifacts to Rome for an upcoming exhibition. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, known as the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, hosts over 170,000 artifacts, including Amenemope’s gilded wooden funerary mask.
Notably, this incident precedes the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which is scheduled to commence six weeks from now. This new facility will showcase treasures, including those from the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4l1w98nj1o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss