A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet belonging to Pharaoh Amenemope has been stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and melted down for scrap, according to authorities. The theft has sparked national outrage over lax security and the irreversible loss of a priceless piece of Egypt’s ancient heritage.

The bracelet, featuring a lapis lazuli bead, was taken on 9 September from a restoration lab inside the Egyptian Museum.

Officials said that an on duty female restoration specialist removed it from a locked safe and sold it through a chain of middlemen: first to a silver shop in Cairo’s Sayyeda Zeinab district, then to a gold workshop in the historic Al-Sagha market, and finally to a gold foundry worker who melted it down together with other gold.

Authorities say it fetched around $4,000 in the end. 

Four people have been arrested, including the museum specialist, and have confessed according to officials. The authorities also seized the money exchanged in the transaction. 

Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy has blamed the incident on “laxity” in security procedures and noted that the restoration lab lacked surveillance cameras. Many Egyptians, including archaeologists and civil society activists, have expressed shock and demanded stricter protection for antiquities. Some are calling for a pause on overseas exhibitions until better controls are in place. 

A judge has ordered that the restoration specialist and her main accomplice be detained for 15 days pending further investigation; the other two suspects may be released on bail. 

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