Overview
- Paris’s Natural History Museum reported a night-time burglary in its geology department that removed naturally occurring gold specimens valued at roughly €600,000 by material price.
- The museum called the loss incalculable for research and heritage, closed the affected department until further notice, and increased monitoring.
- Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet from the era of Pharaoh Amenemope, set with lapis lazuli beads, was found missing during an inventory.
- An internal investigation is underway in Cairo, and antiquities specialists at airports, ports, and border crossings have been alerted as the search continues.
- The incidents follow a series of high-profile museum thefts in France, including a recent Limoges break-in, while Egypt’s Tahrir museum manages a vast collection ahead of planned transfers to the new Great Egyptian Museum.