A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet that went missing from an Egyptian museum earlier this month has been stolen and melted down, the country’s Interior Ministry revealed on Thursday.

The antiquity, once belonging to King Amenemope of Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period around 1,000 BC, was reported missing by the Antiquities and Tourism Ministry on 9 September. The bracelet, adorned with spherical lapis lazuli beads, had vanished from a safe inside a conservation laboratory.

Authorities initially feared the artefact had been smuggled abroad. A special committee was set up to review the laboratory’s collection, while images of the missing item were circulated to antiquities units across Egypt’s airports, seaports, and land borders.

Investigations eventually traced the theft to a museum restoration specialist. According to the Interior Ministry, the specialist sold the bracelet to a silver trader, who in turn passed it to a workshop owner in Cairo’s historic jewellery district. The workshop owner then sold it to a gold smelter, who recast the metal along with other items, effectively destroying the ancient treasure.

The suspects have since been arrested, and the proceeds from the sale—valued at about 194,000 Egyptian pounds ($4,000)—were confiscated.

The theft and destruction of the artefact comes at a sensitive time for Egypt, just weeks ahead of the planned November opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids. The new facility is set to be the country’s premier showcase of ancient heritage and a major draw for tourism, a sector crucial to Egypt’s struggling economy.

Melissa Enoch

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