Egyptian authorities have arrested a museum worker and three others after a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet was stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and melted down at a gold foundry to conceal its origin, the Interior Ministry announced on Monday.
The bracelet, which dates back to the reign of King Amenemope of Egypt’s 21st Dynasty (993-984 BC), was adorned with lapis lazuli beads and stored in a secure steel cabinet in the museum’s restoration laboratory. It was reported missing on September 13 by the museum’s deputy director and another restoration specialist during preparations to ship artefacts to Rome for an upcoming exhibition.
The ministry said the theft was carried out on September 9 by a female restoration specialist working at the museum. The suspect removed the bracelet and contacted a silver merchant in Cairo’s Sayeda Zeinab district to sell the artefact.
The silver merchant then sold the bracelet to a goldsmith in the city’s historic jewellery district for 180,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,736). The goldsmith then sold it to a worker at a gold foundry for 194,000 Egyptian pounds ($4,026). According to the ministry, the bracelet was subsequently melted down and combined with other gold items to be reshaped.
Police arrested all four suspects after obtaining the necessary legal approvals. During questioning, the suspects confessed to their involvement in the theft and sale of the bracelet. Authorities also recovered the money obtained from selling the artefact, the ministry added.
The theft has sounded alarm bells over the security of Egypt’s cultural heritage. The Egyptian Museum, the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, houses over 170,000 artefacts, including the gilded wooden funerary mask of King Amenemope.
A specialist committee has been formed to carry out an inventory and review of all items stored in the restoration laboratory. The antiquities ministry said it had delayed announcing the theft to allow a thorough investigation to proceed.
As part of the investigation, authorities circulated images of the missing bracelet to all Egyptian airports, seaports and land border crossings in an effort to prevent it from being smuggled.
The theft comes just weeks before the keenly awaited opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in nearby Giza, where many of the country’s most famous artefacts, including the treasures of King Tutankhamun, are set to go on display.
