Overview

• Egypt’s Interior Ministry says the gold-and-lapis bracelet was stolen from the museum’s restoration lab, sold through intermediaries, and melted down in a Cairo workshop.
• Surveillance footage released by authorities shows the piece being exchanged for cash and cut in two, with investigators noting discrepancies from an image shared earlier by officials.
• The suspects include a museum restorations specialist who allegedly removed the artifact, after which it was sold for about 180,000 Egyptian pounds and then resold to a gold smelter for roughly 194,000 pounds (€3,100–€3,400).
• The bracelet dates to the reign of Amenemope and was excavated at Tanis in the burial context linked to King Psusennes I, with an Egyptologist calling it scientifically significant.
• Local reports said the item had been slated for an October exhibition in Rome, and the case unfolds weeks before the Nov. 1 opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum.