Three gilded statuettes of Tutanhkamun from the boy king’s tomb are among more than fifty objects now officially confirmed as having been stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The objects vanished on January 28, during the protests that brought down President Hosni Mubarak, but it has taken six weeks to confirm what is actually missing.
The most famous piece is a gilded wooden figure of Tutankhamun, more than two feet high, showing him on a skiff and throwing a harpoon, presumably spearing fish. According to the museum, “the figure was found missing following the looting and vandalism that happened in the museum on January 28, 2011. It seems to have been broken off by the looters, and all that remains are the king’s feet, right arm, harpoon and the bronze hoop that the king had held in his left hand.”
Even in its damaged state, the piece will be instantly recognisable so that the thief, or an unscrupulous dealer, would have trouble in selling it. The same applies to a second gilded figure about 18 inches high, of Tutankhamun wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. He is striding forward, holding a crook in his left hand and a flail in his right.
The third and largest statue, almost three feet high, shows “Menkaret carrying a Mummified Tutankhamun Statue of Tutankhamun”, according to the Egyptian Museum’s list. In this case, the figure of Tutankhamun was broken off by the looters and has disappeared.
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Other important pieces from the tomb include a carved and gilded wooden fanstock, now missing its feathers, and a gilded bronze trumpet with a painted wooden core. A number of small bronze statuettes of Egyptian gods, including Anubis, the embalmer, two of Bastet, the cat goddess, two of Osiris, and a figure of Hapi, with his distinctive candelabra-like headdress, have gone, as has a bronze scepter in the form of the goddess Hat-Mehit wearing a fish headdress.
The theft seems to have been partly opportunistic: two bronze false beards detached from their original statues are missing, and a number of inscribed shabti figures of Yuya, put in the tomb to serve the deceased in the afterlife. Many of the objects are shown in modern photographs and will be easy to recognise, but some have only old black-and-white photos.
The list is based on the Egyptian Museum’s official registers, and its curators must be hoping that at least some of the looted treasures will come back.
The Egyptian press reported on on March 17 that three men had been arrested and 12 of the objects recovered, including many of the statuettes, after a sting involving an American Embassy worker who offered to buy the pieces for $50 million. However, details of exactly which objects were recovered and which are still missing were not given.