Overview

• Egypt’s Interior Ministry says a restoration specialist stole the 3,000-year-old gold bracelet on September 9 from a conservation lab safe and funneled it through traders before a smelter recast the metal.
• The ministry reports four arrests and the seizure of proceeds worth about 194,000 Egyptian pounds, leaving the original artifact effectively destroyed and unlikely to be recovered.
• The bracelet, a gold band with spherical lapis lazuli beads, belonged to 21st Dynasty ruler Amenemope and was discovered at Tanis; items linked to his intact burial are rare.
• Museum officials say the disappearance was detected during an inventory as artifacts were readied for the ‘Treasures of the Pharaohs’ exhibition in Rome, and they delayed public disclosure to protect the investigation.
• Authorities formed a specialist committee to audit the lab and circulated the bracelet’s image to antiquities units at airports, seaports and land crossings as audits continue ahead of major exhibitions and the Grand Egyptian Museum opening.