Egypt: Pharaoh-era gold bracelet stolen and melted down – Four arrests

Four radical person been arrested – including an antiquities conservator astatine the Cairo Museum – implicit the theft of a priceless Pharaonic-era bracelet, which was sold for €3,400 and yet melted down successful a golden foundry, Egyptian authorities announced today.

The gold bracelet, decorated with a lapis lazuli bead, dated backmost to the reign of Pharaoh Amenemope of the 21st Dynasty (1070–945 BC). It disappeared from a vault successful the restoration store of the Cairo Museum, according to the Ministry of Culture.

Egyptian media reported that the jewel had been listed among artifacts scheduled to question to Rome successful October for the accumulation “Treasures of the Pharaohs.”

The probe revealed that the bracelet was stolen from the museum, sold, and past taken to a foundry wherever it was melted on with different jewelry, the Interior Ministry said. Surveillance footage released by authorities shows the bracelet being exchanged for a stack of banknotes earlier the purchaser cuts it successful half.

The conservator “managed to bargain the bracelet portion moving astatine the museum,” past contacted a jeweler who sold it to a store proprietor for 180,000 Egyptian pounds (about €3,100). He aboriginal sold it to a golden foundry for 194,000 pounds (about €3,400), according to the statement.

The 4 suspects confessed, and the wealth was seized.

The bracelet had primitively been discovered successful Tanis, alongside the aureate funerary disguise of Pharaoh Amenemope, which remains connected show astatine the Cairo Museum with immoderate 170,000 archaeological artifacts.

In August, erstwhile Egyptian doc Ashraf Omar Eldarir was sentenced to six months successful situation successful the U.S. for smuggling Egyptian antiquities.