Anger in Egypt after the golden bracelet of Pharaoh is melted from a Cairo Museum

Kairo (AP) Egyptians responded with indignation this week after officials said that a 3000-year-old bracelet that belonged to an ancient Pharaoh was stolen from the famous Egyptian museum of Cairo and then melted for gold. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy said in television remarks late Saturday that the bracelet was stolen on September 9 while officials in the museum are preparing artifacts for an exhibition in Italy. He blamed ‘laxity’ in implementing procedures at the facility, saying that prosecutors are still investigating. The bracelet, which contains a lapis lazuli bead, belonged to Pharaoh Amenemope, who ruled about 3000 years ago. Authorities said it was taken from a restoration laboratory in the museum and subsequently pulled through a chain dealers before it was melted. The minister said the lab does not have security cameras. Four suspects were arrested, including a repair specialist at the museum who acknowledged that he gave the bracelet to an acquaintance that owns a silver shop in the Sayyeda Zainab district in Cairo. It was allegedly later sold to the owner of a gold workshop for the equivalent of about $ 3.800. It was eventually sold to a worker at another gold workshop for about $ 4,000, who melted the bracelet to make other gold jewelry. The suspects acknowledged their crimes and the money was seized, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The ministry also released a security camera video in which a shop owner receives a bracelet, weighs it and then pays one of the suspects. Local media reported on Sunday that a judge ordered the recovery specialist and her knowledge to remain in custody for another 15 days pending further investigations. He ordered the two remaining suspects to be released if their bail posted on 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 207) each. The loss of a treasure that survived three millennia was painful for many in Egypt, where there is a great regard for the ancient heritage of the country. Some question security measures at the museum and ask that these measures across the country’s treasures be tightened. Monica Hanna, a prominent Egyptian archaeologist, requested that the suspension of oversight of the exhibitions be implemented “until better control” to secure the artifacts. Hanna was transported by the Dean to the Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime, and campaigns for the return of Egyptian artifacts exhibited abroad in museums. Malek Adly, an Egyptian lawyer for human rights, calls the theft “an alarm clock” for the government and said that better security is needed for antiquities in exhibition rooms and those storing. Amenemope rules Egypt of Tanis in the Nile Delta during the 21st Dynasty of Egypt. According to the Egyptian museum, the Tanis Royal Necropolis was discovered in 1940 by French archaeologist Pierre Montet. The collection of the Necropolis shows about 2500 antique artifacts, including gold funeral masks, silver chests and gold jewelery. The collection was restored in 2021 in collaboration with the Louvre Museum in Paris. The theft is reminiscent of some cultural losses from the past, including the disappearance of Vincent van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers” – which was valued at $ 50 million at the time – from another Cairo Museum in 2010. The painting was stolen in 1977, but was later restored. However, it has not been found since the theft in 2010. ___ This version corrected that the Van Gogh painting stolen in 2010 was not repaired. It was restored to an earlier theft in 1977.