Eight Egyptian Museum Officials Face Disciplinary Tribunal For Allegedly Damaging King Tutankhamen’s Mask
Eight Egyptian museum officials will be facing a disciplinary tribunal for allegedly damaging King Tutankhamen's gold mask at the Egyptian Museum located in Cairo. PBS reported Sunday that the golden mask of King Tutankhamen was accidentally knocked off by wardens in 2014.
Reports revealed that the incident removed and scraped the beard from the solid-gold mask of the Egyptian pharaoh. Prosecutors disclosed that the wardens tried to fix the golden mask by sticking the piece back on with the use epoxy.
"In an attempt to cover up the damage they inflicted, they used sharp instruments such as scalpels and metal tools to remove traces of adhesive on the mask, causing damage and scratches that remain," the prosecutors said in a dispatch, reported by Chicago Tribune Sunday.
The golden mask was put back on display at the museum in December after German-Egyptian specialists removed the epoxy that was initially used by the wardens. The process took them two months before they could reattach the beard using beeswax.
"We have some uncertainties now, we don't know how deep the glue went inside the beard, and so we don't know how long it will take to remove the beard," German restoration expert Christian Eckmann told The Guardian on Oct. 21.
He continued, "We try to make all the work by mechanical means ... we use wooden sticks which work quite well at the moment, then there is another strategy we could implement, slightly warming up the glue. It's unfortunately epoxy resin which is not soluble."
Fine scratches are still visible on the 3,300-year-old artifact, which was caused by the initial attempt to fix the golden mask.
The New York Times noted that the accused museum officials have been suspended from their work at the museum. In addition to that, these officials reportedly will face a disciplinary tribunal over the incident.
The eight officials will also be sanctioned and could face removal from office. Despite this, the officials will not be imprisoned for the incident.
