Pharaoh's Lost Gold Bracelet Stolen Turns Out To Be Merged, Suspect Successfully Secured

JAKARTA - A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet missing from an Egyptian museum earlier this month has been stolen and melted, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism reported the loss of a bracelet belonging to the King of Amenemope from the Third Medium Period, which ruled Egypt at around 1,000 BC.

The bracelet, decorated with lazuli-layered beads in the form of a ball, disappeared from the safe in the conservation laboratory on September 9, quoted from Reuters, September 19.

The bracelet is being restored in the laboratory and is not on display, quoted from The National.

After the theft, a special committee was formed to review artifacts at the laboratory, and the missing bracelets were circulated to antique units at Egyptian land border airports, seaports, and crossings, fearing the bracelets would be smuggled overseas.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs tracked the theft to a museum restoration specialist who took the artifact and sold it to a silver trader, who then forwarded it to a workshop owner in Cairo's historic jewelry district.

The owner of the workshop then sold it to a gold meltr, who then merged the metal with other items.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said the suspects had been arrested and the proceeds from the sale, worth about 194,000 Egyptian pounds were confiscated.

The incident comes weeks before plans to open The Grand Egyptian Museum near the Pyramids of Giza in November.

Museum workers are preparing to move the treasure of the tomb of King Tutankhamun from the museum in Tahrir Field to a new location before the opening, which is touted as a major cultural milestone by the Government of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

In 2021, Egypt held a major parade that moved 22 royal mummies, includingvises II and Ratu Hatshepsut, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilizations in Cairo Lama.