Egyptians have expressed anger after officials said a 3,000-year-old bracelet that once belonged to Pharaoh Amenemope was stolen from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum and melted down for gold. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy said on state television late Saturday that the bracelet was taken on 9 September while staff were preparing artefacts for an exhibition in Italy. He blamed “laxity” in applying procedures at the museum and said prosecutors were still investigating. The gold bracelet, which had a lapis lazuli bead, was removed from a restoration lab that did not have security cameras, officials said. According to the Interior Ministry, four suspects have been arrested, including a museum restoration worker. Tourists visit the Egyptian museum in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo) The ministry said the restoration worker confessed to handing the bracelet to an acquaintance who owns a silver shop in Cairo’s Sayyeda Zainab district. It was later sold on to a gold workshop for about $3,800, then again for around $4,000, before it was melted down to make other jewellery. “The suspects confessed to their crimes and the money was seized,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It also released security camera footage showing a shop owner receiving a bracelet, weighing it and paying one of the suspects. The Egyptian museum in Cairo is illuminated marking the "Launching of the Interactive Mobile Application to Promote Egyptian Antiquities" project in Cairo, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo) Monica Hanna, dean of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, said Egypt should “suspend overseas exhibits until better control” is in place to protect artefacts. Malek Adly, a human rights lawyer, called the theft “an alarm bell” for the government and urged tighter security for antiquities both on display and in storage. Amenemope ruled Egypt from Tanis in the Nile Delta during the 21st Dynasty, about 3,000 years ago. His tomb was part of the Tanis royal necropolis discovered in 1940 by French archaeologist Pierre Montet. The collection includes about 2,500 objects, among them golden masks, silver coffins and jewellery. The case has reminded some Egyptians of earlier cultural losses, including the brief theft of Vincent van Gogh’s Poppy Flowers painting from a Cairo museum in 2010. (With inputs from AP)
