Egyptian authorities have initiated a comprehensive search for a priceless 3,000-year-old bracelet that has gone missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The bracelet, a rare gold band embellished with spherical lapis lazuli beads, dates back to the reign of King Amenemope, a pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from 993 to 984 BC. The artifact vanished from the museum’s restoration laboratory, prompting immediate action from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The case has been handed over to the police, and an image of the bracelet has been distributed to all Egyptian airports, seaports, and land border crossings to prevent any smuggling attempts. A specialized committee has also been formed to conduct a thorough inventory and review of all artifacts in the restoration laboratory. The ministry delayed announcing the disappearance to facilitate the investigation, though it did not specify when the bracelet was last seen. According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Misri al-Yawm, the disappearance was discovered recently as museum staff were preparing to ship dozens of artifacts to Rome for an upcoming exhibition. The Egyptian Museum, the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, houses over 170,000 artifacts, including Amenemope’s gilded wooden funerary mask. This incident occurs just six weeks before the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which will showcase the treasures from King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
