An investigation has been initiated by the police following the theft of a pharaoh’s gold bracelet from the restoration laboratory at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Antiquities units across Egypt, including those stationed at border crossings, seaports, and airports, are actively searching for the 3,000-year-old bracelet, which features lapis lazuli beads—a semi-precious stone highly valued in ancient Egypt.
In response to the incident, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that it has taken immediate legal and administrative actions regarding the disappearance of the bracelet. Their statement was supported by a photograph contrasting the stolen piece with a similar bracelet currently displayed in the museum, featuring just a single lapis lazuli bead. Ancient Egyptians believed that lapis lazuli possessed healing powers and was also used in crafting statues of gods and scarabs.
The missing bracelet was linked to King Amenemope, a pharaoh from the 21st dynasty who reigned from 993 to 984 B.C.E. during the Third Intermediate Period, which marked a transition between the end of the New Kingdom and the onset of the Late Period. This artifact was one of several undergoing restoration in preparation for a loan to the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome for the upcoming exhibition titled “Treasures of the Pharaohs,” scheduled to open on October 24.
In light of this theft, authorities have established a committee responsible for systematically inventorying all artifacts currently held within the restoration laboratory. In recent years, a significant number of artifacts from the Egyptian Museum have been transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, with its highly anticipated grand opening set for November 1, 2025, intending to showcase the complete contents of King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The authorities chose to withhold public information regarding the missing artifact until the investigation had formally begun, aiming to deter any attempts to smuggle it out of the country—a persistent issue faced by Egyptian antiquities. Notably, it has been reported that there were no surveillance cameras installed inside the restoration lab.
If the bracelet has indeed been smuggled, experts warn that it may eventually surface either on an online marketplace or within a dealer’s gallery, possibly accompanied by false provenance documents, or quietly sold into a private collection. This potential outcome has been discussed by Christos Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist at Cambridge University.
King Amenemope’s tomb was discovered in April 1940 by French Egyptologists Pierre Montet and Georges Goyon, shortly before the Nazi invasion of France. Excavations resumed post-World War II and revealed one of only three known intact royal burials.
The forthcoming exhibition in Rome is set to showcase 130 artifacts on loan from Egyptian museums, including the golden funerary mask of King Amenemope and Queen Ahhotep’s golden sarcophagus. Queen Ahhotep, a notable female ruler, has long been eclipsed by figures such as Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra. This marks only the second major exhibition organized by Egypt in Italy, the first being a display of 80 artifacts at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2002 and 2003.
