Ancient King’s Mask Damaged In Botched Cleaning

One of the most important artifact of the ancient world was damaged during a cleaning attempt.

The beard of the golden mask of King Tutankhamun snapped off during a cleaning attempt at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The staff of the museum tried to stuck it back using epoxy, which later leaked into the face of the mask and dried. Then, the workers tried to scrape it off that left visible scratches to the priceless treasure in achaeology.

“The mask should have been taken to the conservation lab but they were in a rush to get it displayed quickly again and used this quick drying, irreversible materual,” said a conservator to the Associated Press.

The lighting in the room where the mask was displayed was dimmed in an attempt to hide the scratches. The Al Araby Al Jadeed posted a photo showing the damage. The epoxy was obvious.

بالصور..توت عنخ آمون..تشويه قناع الملك في المتحف المصري #تحقيقات http://t.co/U0COzslgEJ pic.twitter.com/hyDsWLQAPy

— العربي الجديد (@alaraby_ar) January 18, 2015

The Associated Press and Al Araby said staff were asked to keep things confidential. One member of the museum told the AP that the beard were only removed because it was loose.

According to Cairo Scene, damages on such artifacts should be reported to the Ministry of Antiquities and will be repaired by specialists. However, the head of the renovations team only called her husband, who works for a renovation company. He then decided to fix it using the epoxy.

The tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.