CAIRO, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet belonging to an ancient pharaoh, which disappeared from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (EMC) earlier this month, was stolen and melted down, Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the ministry, a restoration specialist took the artifact and sold it to a silver jeweler she knew. The silver jeweler then sold it to a gold jeweler for 180,000 Egyptian pounds (about 3,735 U.S. dollars), who subsequently sold it for 194,000 Egyptian pounds to a gold smelter. The smelter melted the bracelet along with other jewelry before reshaping it.
The ministry said all four suspects confessed, and the money involved was seized. Legal action has been taken against them.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported the bracelet's disappearance on Tuesday. The item belonged to King Amenemope, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt's 21st Dynasty who ruled from 993 to 984 BC. The bracelet, decorated with a lapis lazuli bead, vanished from a safe in the conservation laboratory on the museum's second floor.
In response, the antiquities ministry formed a special committee to review the lab's artifacts and circulated a photo of the missing bracelet at Egypt's airports, seaports, and land border crossings.
The EMC is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, housing over 170,000 artefacts. It has the largest collection of pharaonic antiquities in the world, according to the museum's official website.
Museums housing ancient artefacts are a vital pillar for attracting tourists and a significant source of foreign currency in Egypt.
