Egypt says that the 3,000 -year -old bracelet has been stolen and melted

A 3000 -year -old golden bracelet that has disappeared from the Egyptian Cairo museum was stolen and melted, according to the Interior Interior Ministry.

A catering specialist took the artifact – which dates back to the reign of the king, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt at around 1,000 before JC – from a safe at the museum nine days ago, according to the ministry.

The woman contacted a silver jewelry she knew, which sold the bracelet to a gold jeweler for $ 3,735 (£ 2,750), he said. He then sold it for $ 4,025 to a worker from the gold foundry, who had melted with other jewelry, he added.

The ministry said that the four people had confessed to their crimes after being arrested and that the money had been seized.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that it had taken immediate measures after the bracelet disappeared from the Egyptian museum restoration laboratory and that the case had been returned to the police.

An image of the gold band adorned with Lapis Lazuli Spherical pearls had been distributed at all Egyptian airports, in maritime ports and to the land borders as a precaution to prevent it from being smuggled in the country, he said.

Local media reported that the disappearance had been detected in recent days when museum staff prepared to send dozens of artifacts to Rome for an exhibition.

The Egyptian Museum of Cairo is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East. It houses more than 170,000 artefacts, including the funeral mask in a gilded wood of Amenemope.

The theft of the bracelet occurred for weeks before the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza nearby, where the famous treasures of the tomb of King Tutankhamun were transferred.