Egyptian authorities said they arrested a museum employee and three accomplices over the theft of a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, which was later sold and melted down.
The artefact, dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenemope of the 21st Dynasty (1070–945 BC), disappeared on September 9 from a secured safe in the museum’s conservation lab. It was due to be exhibited in Italy next month.
Police said the bracelet, a gold band decorated with lapis lazuli beads, was stolen by a restoration specialist on duty, who then conspired with a silver trader to sell it for 180,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,735).
A gold dealer resold it to a foundry worker for 194,000 pounds ($4,025), where it was melted with scrap gold.
The suspects, confessed to the crime, the interior ministry said. Security camera footage released by authorities showed a bracelet being exchanged for cash, though it lacked the distinctive beads seen in official photos.
The theft comes weeks before the opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids and recalls Egypt’s history of high-profile cultural heists, including the 2010 disappearance of Vincent van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers.”
Under Egyptian law, stealing antiquities for smuggling is punishable by life imprisonment and fines of up to 5 million pounds ($100,000).
