Rut roh.
Museum employees in Cairo claim that Tutankhamun’s mask was damaged and hurriedly repaired, The Guardian reports.
Note: Images were taken before the alleged damage.
During routine maintenance to the Egyptian Museum exhibit, someone allegedly broke off the braided beard by accident and gave the pharaoh an instant shave. The mask is over 3,300 years old.
Though reports vary, conservators also claim that after using epoxy to glue it back on, it was scraped off with a spatula, leaving scratches, according to the AP. "The problem was that they tried to fix it in half an hour and it should have taken them days," an unnamed official told The Guardian, requesting anonymity to protect his job.
Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images
The museum's director and conservation department vehemently deny allegations of a cover-up.
The head of the department, Elham Abdelrahman, told The Guardian that the issue existed before the director, Mahmoud el-Halwagy, even began working there: Conservators were apparently worried that King Tut's beard was a bit too loose and applied an approved glue — and that adhesive is just too visible.
She also said that if that had happened, it would have been taken very seriously and reported. Currently an expert committee is reviewing the claims and will report its findings at an undetermined date.
King Tut's resting place was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt's most famous collection of fancy tombs. Tutankhamun is believed to have died at 19, most likely due to his genetic impairments, not a chariot accident as previously theorized, a 2010 study shows.
Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images
The alleged botched repair is a little reminiscent of another attempted restoration: the Ecce Homo fiasco.
Potato Jesus, forever in our hearts.
Via reddit.com
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