&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "3,000-year-old bracelet of Egyptian Pharo stolen and melted down for gold leads to widespread anger")
There is widespread outrage in Egypt after it was revealed that a rare, 3,000-year-old golden bracelet of an ancient Pharo was stolen from Cairo’s famed Egyptian Museum and then melted down for gold. The announcement was made by Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy on Saturday (Sep 22).
In the televised comment, Fathy said the bracelet was stolen on Sep 9 from a safe at the Cairo museum, while officials were preparing artifacts for an exhibit in Italy.
The bracelet, after being stolen by a restoration specialist was sold to a gold jeweller for $3,735 (£2,750), who then sold it for $4,025 to a gold foundry worker, who later melted it down, said the ministry in its statement.
A CCTV camera video showing a shop owner receiving the bracelet, weighing it, and then giving money to on of the suspects, was also released by the ministry.
Four people have been arrested in the matter and confessed to their crimes. The money that was earned out of stealing the bracelet has also been seized. Legal action will be initiated against the accused, said officials.
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The bracelet dates back to the reign of King Amenemope, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 1,000BC.
Immediately after the artefact went missing from the museum, an image of the bracelet adorned with spherical lapis lazuli beads was circulated to all Egyptian airports, seaports and land border crossings to stop it from being smuggled out of the country.
The Museum in Cairo is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East. Over 170,000 artefacts, including Amenemope's gilded wooden funerary mask are kept in the museum.
