Nigeria TV Info – 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Gold Bracelet Stolen and Destroyed

A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet that went missing from an Egyptian museum earlier this month has been stolen and melted down, the country’s Interior Ministry revealed on Thursday.

The antiquity, which once belonged to King Amenemope of Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period around 1,000 BC, was reported missing by the Antiquities and Tourism Ministry on 9 September. The bracelet, decorated with spherical lapis lazuli beads, disappeared from a safe inside a conservation laboratory.

Authorities initially feared the artefact had been smuggled abroad. A special committee was established to review the laboratory’s collection, while images of the missing item were circulated to antiquities units at airports, seaports, and land borders across Egypt.

Investigations later traced the theft to a museum restoration specialist. According to the Interior Ministry, the specialist sold the bracelet to a silver trader, who then passed it on to a workshop owner in Cairo’s historic jewellery district. The workshop owner subsequently sold it to a gold smelter, who recast the metal along with other items, effectively destroying the ancient treasure.