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Egypt’s antiquities ministry has announced that a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet has vanished from the restoration laboratory of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. The missing artefact, described as a golden band set with spherical lapis lazuli beads, dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenemope of the 21st Dynasty, who ruled between 1070 and 945 BC.
The ministry confirmed the disappearance in a statement issued late on Tuesday, but did not reveal when the bracelet was last seen. Local media outlets reported that the loss came to light during a recent inventory check, although this has not been officially verified. Authorities have launched an internal investigation, and all antiquities units at Egypt’s airports, seaports and land border crossings have been alerted to watch for any attempt to smuggle the item out of the country.
Officials said the disappearance was not made public immediately to avoid disrupting the ongoing inquiry. A full inventory of the lab’s collection is also underway as part of the probe. The Egyptian Museum, located in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, is home to over 170,000 artefacts, including the renowned gold funerary mask of King Amenemope.
The incident comes just weeks ahead of the planned 1 November inauguration of the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum. Preparations are already underway to transfer some of the museum’s most prized collections, including the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb, to the new facility, which is being promoted as a landmark cultural project under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s administration.
In 2021, Egypt held a grand procession to relocate 22 royal mummies, including those of Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Old Cairo, part of a wider campaign to modernise the nation’s museums and boost its cultural tourism sector.
