Hunt for Missing 3,000-Year-Old Bracelet Raises Alarm at Egyptian Museum

Cairo — Egyptian authorities have launched an urgent investigation into the disappearance of a rare 3,000-year-old bracelet from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, raising fresh concerns about the security of one of the world’s most important collections of antiquities.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities confirmed in a statement this week that the artifact—a golden bracelet set with a bead of deep-blue lapis lazuli—vanished from the museum’s restoration laboratory only days ago. The ministry said the bracelet dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenemope, who ruled during Egypt’s 21st Dynasty between 1070 and 945 BCE.

Officials declined to specify when the piece was last seen, citing the need to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.

A Bracelet of Symbolic Power

While the bracelet is not considered one of ancient Egypt’s most visually stunning treasures, scholars emphasize its exceptional scientific value.

French Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, who has worked extensively in Tanis—the site where the bracelet was unearthed—described it as “a simple yet remarkably significant object.” He explained that the bracelet is made from a gold alloy carefully engineered to resist deformation.

“In Egyptian thought, gold represented the eternal flesh of the gods,” Olette-Pelletier noted. “The lapis lazuli, imported at great cost from as far away as Afghanistan, was associated with divine hair. The bracelet thus embodied a powerful symbolic connection between human rulers and the divine world.”

The piece was originally discovered in the royal necropolis of Tanis, in the Nile Delta, during excavations of the tomb of Psusennes I. After his own tomb was looted in antiquity, Pharaoh Amenemope was reburied in Psusennes’ resting place—a discovery that has provided modern scholars with important insights into the political and religious transitions of the Third Intermediate Period.

Emergency Measures and Heightened Security

In response to the loss, Egypt’s antiquities authorities have established a specialized committee to inventory all items currently in the restoration department. Images of the missing bracelet have also been circulated to airports, seaports, land borders, and customs authorities across Egypt in an attempt to prevent its smuggling abroad.

The theft—or possible misplacement—was first detected during a routine inventory of artifacts scheduled to travel to Rome for the upcoming exhibition Treasures of the Pharaohs, due to open at the end of October.

The Ministry acknowledged that the news was not made public immediately, explaining that officials sought to create “the proper environment for investigations to proceed without obstruction.”

A Museum in Transition

The Egyptian Museum, an iconic building overlooking Cairo’s Tahrir Square since the early 20th century, houses approximately 170,000 artifacts, making it one of the richest collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world.

Among its treasures is the golden funerary mask of Tutankhamun, though much of the boy-king’s collection is now being transferred to the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), situated near the Giza Pyramids. The GEM is expected to open officially in November and is designed to be the largest archaeological museum in the world.

The museum’s transition has already been marked by spectacular events. In April 2021, Egyptians and international audiences watched in awe as 22 royal mummies—including those of Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut—were paraded through Cairo’s streets in the so-called “Pharaohs’ Golden Parade,” a grand state ceremony relocating them to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

Concerns Over Heritage Security

The disappearance of the Amenemope bracelet has reignited debates over the safeguarding of Egypt’s vast archaeological heritage. Critics have long argued that despite Egypt’s unmatched wealth of antiquities, its museums and storage facilities remain vulnerable to theft, especially during transitional periods such as the current large-scale transfers of collections.

For many archaeologists, the case highlights the delicate balance between preserving ancient treasures and making them accessible to the public. “Every artifact, even one as modest as this bracelet, carries a piece of Egypt’s story,” Olette-Pelletier said. “Its loss would not only deprive us of a scientific object but of part of humanity’s cultural memory.”

As investigations continue, Egypt faces mounting pressure to recover the missing artifact before it can vanish into the shadowy networks of the global antiquities black market—where demand for Egyptian treasures has remained consistently high for decades.

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