Eight museum employees in Egypt are facing charges after messing up the beard on the mask of legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun. The blue and gold beard on the 3,000-year-old burial mask became detached and appears to have been hastily glued back on.
Exactly what happened is still a mystery, with museum staff offering different versions of events. While one said that it was knocked off, another suggested that it had become loose and was subsequently removed.
The accused employees of the Egyptian Museum—one of whom is a former director—are facing charges of negligence and violating professional standards, according to local media reports.
The prosecution alleges that the employees were reckless in their dealing with the situation, using large amounts of an inappropriate glue to fix their mistake.
The failed reattachment job was pretty obvious, as seen in this picture (via Twitter).
They reportedly made four attempts to reattach the beard, each time trying to remove the evidence of the previous failed efforts .
According to Daily News Egypt, the prosecutors said, “Ignoring all scientific methods of restoration, the suspects tried to conceal their crime by using sharp metal tools to remove parts of the glue that became visible, thus damaging the 3,000-year-old piece without a moment of conscience.”
Since the incident occurred last year, German experts have restored the mask properly.
