Four people have been arrested after the Egyptian Museum in Cairo lost a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet, according to the country’s interior ministry.
The bracelet, which has been described as a golden band embellished with “spherical lapis lazuli beads,” belonged to King Amenemope, who ruled Egypt during the 21st Dynasty (1070-945 BC).
In a statement released late on September 16, the government did not say when the art piece was last seen. Although it could not be verified, Egyptian media sites reported that the loss was discovered during an inventory check in the last few days.
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Authorities announced that antiquities units at all Egyptian airports, seaports, and land border crossings nationwide had been notified and that an internal investigation had been launched.
“In addition, an image of the missing bracelet has been circulated to antiquities units across all Egyptian airports, seaports, and land border crossings nationwide as a precautionary step to prevent smuggling attempts,” the country’s antiquities ministry said, while posting a photo of the bracelet on social media.
On Thursday, the interior ministry announced that a restoration specialist took the bracelet from a safe at the museum nine days ago. It said the woman got in touch with a silver jeweller she knew, who sold the bracelet to a gold jeweller for $3,735. He subsequently sold it for $4,025 to a gold foundry worker, who had melted it down with other jewellery, the ministry said, according to the BBC.
Following their arrest, the four individuals confessed to their crimes and officials seized the money, the ministry said.
The case was not reported immediately to allow investigations to begin.
The BBC reports that the Egyptian museum in Cairo is the Middle East’s oldest archaeological museum. It is home to over 170,000 items, including Amenemope’s gilded wooden funerary mask.
The bracelet’s theft took place weeks ahead of the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in neighboring Giza, where the world-famous treasures of King Tutankhamun’s tomb have been relocated.
The United States sent 25 stolen ancient treasures back to Egypt earlier this year, including pieces of what is thought to be Queen Hatshepsut’s temple. The precious pieces, which span millennia of Egyptian history, were handed over after Egypt’s consulate in New York worked for three years to recover them.
