Eight museum employees involved with a botched attempt to repair damage to King Tut’s burial mask are being charged with “gross negligence” and violation of the professional rules of the workplace, Egyptian authorities said Saturday.
The 3,300-year-old mask is currently on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where its beard was broken off in 2014—which the staff blamed on an accident during cleaning, but later investigators blamed the damage on old age. Regardless of how it happened, the eight employees involved attempted an extremely hasty repair using epoxy.
A poor coverup
The damage didn’t stay secret for long; there was a noticeable gap between the face and the beard, and the epoxy spread across the face of the mask where the workers used metal tools to scrape the glue away.
“In an attempt to cover up the damage they inflicted, they used sharp instruments such as scalpels and other metal tools to remove traces of adhesive on the mask, causing damage and scratches that remain,” said prosecutors of the case in a statement, according to ABC News.
The damage claims were dismissed by museum officials at the time, but prosecutors opened an investigation last year, where they discovered the workers failed to follow protocol.
“The officials dealt recklessly with a piece of an artifact that is 3,300 years old, produced by one of the oldest civilizations in the world,” the Administrative Prosecution told state-run news site Ahram Online.
The eight employees involved—two restorers, four restoration specialists, and two former heads of the restoration section—face disciplinary measures and fines. According to officials, while a German team removed the epoxy and re-attached the beard using the traditional ancient Egyptian method (beeswax), the employees permanently damaged the mask, leaving visible scratches across the face.
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Image credit: Thinkstock
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