Egyptians outraged after priceless bracelet belonging to pharaoh stolen from museum, melted down

Egyptians are furious after learning that a priceless 3,000-year-old bracelet from an ancient pharaoh vanished from Cairo’s iconic Egyptian Museum and got melted down for its gold. The theft has sparked widespread anger over the security of Egypt’s treasured antiquities.

Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy shared the shocking details on TV late Saturday. The bracelet disappeared on September 9, right as museum staff prepped artifacts for an upcoming exhibit in Italy. Fathy pointed to sloppy procedures at the museum as the culprit, and he noted that prosecutors are digging deeper into the case.

This wasn’t just any piece of jewelry—it featured a rare lapis lazuli bead and once adorned Pharaoh Amenemope, who ruled Egypt around 3,000 years ago during the 21st Dynasty. Thieves snatched it from the museum’s restoration lab, which shockingly lacked security cameras. From there, it passed through shady dealers before someone turned it into scrap gold.

Four suspects are now in custody, including a restoration specialist at the museum. She admitted to handing the bracelet to a friend who runs a silver shop in Cairo’s Sayyeda Zainab neighborhood. That friend sold it to a gold workshop owner for about $3,800. Later, it fetched around $4,000 from a worker at another workshop, who melted it down to craft new jewelry.

The suspects have confessed, and authorities seized the cash from the deals. The ministry even released security footage from a shop, capturing one owner weighing the bracelet and paying off a suspect. On Sunday, local reports said a judge kept the restoration specialist and her acquaintance locked up for another 15 days while the probe continues. The other two can go free if they post bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds—about $207—each.

For many in Egypt, losing this ancient relic feels like a gut punch. The country holds its pharaonic heritage close, and this incident has people questioning museum security nationwide. Prominent archaeologist Monica Hanna, dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, urged a halt to overseas exhibits until tighter controls protect these artifacts. She’s long fought for the return of Egyptian treasures displayed abroad.

Egyptian human rights lawyer Malek Adly called the theft a “wake-up call” for the government. He stressed the need for stronger safeguards in exhibit halls and storage rooms to prevent more losses of Egyptian antiquities.

Amenemope governed from Tanis in the Nile Delta, and his royal necropolis—unearthed by French archaeologist Pierre Montet in 1940—boasts over 2,500 stunning items like golden masks, silver coffins, and jeweled treasures. The Egyptian Museum restored much of this collection in 2021 with help from Paris’s Louvre.

This isn’t the first blow to Egypt’s cultural gems. It brings back memories of the 2010 theft of Vincent van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers” painting—worth $50 million—from another Cairo museum. Stolen once before in 1977 and recovered, it’s been missing ever since, highlighting ongoing challenges with artifact theft in Egypt.

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