Cairo: Egyptian prosecutors Saturday referred eight antiquity and restoration officials to trial on charges of involvement in and covering up of a botched reattachment that harmed the funerary mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, legal sources said.
The defendants include an ex-director of the National Museum, which is Egypt’s main museum, three restoration experts from the same institution and four conservation officials at the Ministry of Antiquities, the sources added.
“The accused violated the scientific and professional rules in dealing with the relic although they presumably know that its value and importance goes beyond the local borders,” a prosecution statement said.
No date has yet been set for the trial.
The case dates back to August 2014 when the iconic mask suffered scratches and its beard had a tiny slant caused by the hasty bid to reglue the beard after it was accidentally knocked off during cleaning at the museum.
Excessive amounts of epoxy were reportedly used to glue the beard back on the 3,300-year-old mask in what local media dubbed “Tut’s disgrace”.
At the time, critics called for sacking Minister of Antiquities Mamduh Al Damati, who referred the scandal to prosecution for investigations.
In October last year, a team of conservators led by German expert Christian Eckmann started an elaborate mission to remove the damage and re-fix the beard.
Two months later, the artefact was put back on public display at the museum following successful restoration.
The 11kg burial mask made of pure gold, along with the pharaoh’s almost intact tomb, was discovered by British archaeologists Howard Carter and George Herbert in the Valley of Kings in South Egypt in 1922.
The relics, which went on public display 20 years later, are a centrepiece of attractions at the National Museum located in Cairo’s famed Tahrir Square.
According to historians, Tutankhamun, also known as the boy king, was nine years old when he became a pharaoh in the 18th Dynasty. He ruled for about nine years.
