Tut-tut Tut-tut

Egypt to try 8 over botched repair of King Tut mask

Famed mask’s beard was broken off during cleaning, then reattached with damaging epoxy

By AP 24 January 2016, 3:05 pm

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The gold mask of King Tutankhamun on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, December 16, 2015. (AP/Nariman El-Mofty)

CAIRO — Eight Egyptians involved in a botched repair of the famed golden burial mask of King Tut, which was corrected late last year, have been referred to trial for “gross negligence.”

Prosecutors said in a Sunday statement that the 3,300-year-old mask, whose beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued on with epoxy in 2014, was scratched and damaged as a result.

The mask was put back on display last month after a German-Egyptian team of specialists removed the epoxy and reattached the beard using beeswax, which is often used as an adhesive for antiquities.

Restoration specialist Christian Eckmann said a year ago that the cause of a scratch discovered on the mask had not been determined, but that it could have been recent.