WHERE'S a curse when you need it? Curators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo broke off King Tut's beard ... and glued it on crooked ... scratching off some gold plating ... allowing super-glue residue to ooze out of the crack ... permanently desecrating this irreplaceable treasure.
It happened in October and curators tried to hush it up ... even dimming the lights to make it harder to discern the damage.
But the truth has come out ... a tale of panic and subterfuge worthy of any Ancient Egyptian palace intrigue.
But the truth has come out ... a tale of panic and subterfuge worthy of any Ancient Egyptian palace intrigue.
In her exclusive TWITTER EXPOSÉ, she says it started in October when a curator opened the mask's glass display case to replace a light bulb.
"Unfortunately, he held the mask unprofessionally, that led to the dislocation of the false beard," she tweeted.
"In an attempt to repair hastily what happened, this conservator used epoxy to glue back the false beard to the mask. Since the ancient mechanism of fixing the false beard to the mask was damaged, the attempt to glue it resulted in disaster," she said.
"The director of conservation tried to fix the extra epoxy by using sandpaper, which led to the scratching of the mask," Hanna added.
Five young conservators tried to report the fiasco to the Ministry of Antiquities and the news media in late October, but were forced to be silent.
Rumors spread nonetheless, and the Minister of Antiquities visited the museum on November 17 and immediately punished the conservators, Hanna tweeted.
The minister today issued a statement denying any cover-up, despite widespread reports that he has known of the situation for at least two months.
Egypt's HERITAGE TASK FORCE announced today that it will file charges with Egypt's criminal prosecutor.
However, in this case, the source at the museum explained that these procedures were not followed.
Instead, the head of the renovations team, Elham Abdelrahman, is alleged to have panicked and called her husband - also working on the renovation of the Egyptian Museum - who decided he'd repair the mask himself, using epoxy glue which can be purchased at any DIY store, and cannot become unstuck.
To make matters worse, the glue was applied to thickly, and oozed over the seam when the beard was pressed into place, drying visibly on the left-hand side of the beard and chin.
To "fix" this glaring evidence that the mask had been tampered with, the team attempted to scratch off the residue, only damaging it further.
You can read the whole story at Al Araby Al Jadeed HERE (Arabic)
You can read the whole story at Al Araby Al Jadeed HERE (Arabic)
This is just shocking. I wouldn't attempt to glue a rubber shoe sole back together with epoxy without at least trying out a test piece to see if it worked adequately. And this is the priceless iconic golden mask of Tutankhamun! It's as if they tried to daub the Mona Lisa back together with finger paint. Unbelievable.
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