The bracelet of Pharaoh Amenemope has been stolen by a restoration specialist at the Egyptian Museum and melted down. Dated back to 1000 BC, it contained spherical lapis lazuli beads and was sold for only $4,000 at a gold workshop in Cairo. [1120×1120]

The bracelet was stolen on Sep 9. It was taken from a restoration lab at the museum and then funneled through a chain of dealers before being melted down. The lab didn’t have security cameras. Four suspects have been arrested, including a restoration specialist at the museum who confessed to giving the bracelet to an acquaintance who owns a silver shop. It was sold for around $4,000 to a worker at a gold workshop, who melted the bracelet down to make other gold jewelry.

The loss of a treasure that had survived for three millennia was painful to many people in Egypt. Some questioned security measures at the museum and called for tightening these measures. The incident comes just weeks before the planned November opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids, where the famous treasures of King Tutankhamun’s tomb have been transferred.

Egypt is no stranger to high-profile art and antiquities thefts. Vincent van Gogh’s painting Poppy Flowers, valued at around $55 million, was stolen from Cairo’s Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in 1977, recovered two years later, then stolen again in 2010. It has not yet been recovered.

[https://apnews.com/article/egypt-antiquities-museum-pharaoh-bracelet-stolen-13e6958fe0be0765a6ee77446025d7b7](https://apnews.com/article/egypt-antiquities-museum-pharaoh-bracelet-stolen-13e6958fe0be0765a6ee77446025d7b7)

[https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypt-says-missing-pharaohs-bracelet-melted-down-gold-2025-09-18/](https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypt-says-missing-pharaohs-bracelet-melted-down-gold-2025-09-18/)

[https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/pharaohs-gold-bracelet-missing-egypt-museum-rcna231823](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/pharaohs-gold-bracelet-missing-egypt-museum-rcna231823)

[https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/style/egypt-missing-pharaohs-bracelet-melted-down-intl-scli](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/18/style/egypt-missing-pharaohs-bracelet-melted-down-intl-scli)