Zahi Hawass, head of the newly-created Ministry of State for Antiquities, announced this morning that eight artifacts had been stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on 28 January, now known as the "Friday of Anger."
The stolen artifacts were from the collections of King Tutankhamun, his father, King Akhenaten, and his grandfather, Yuya.
On 29 January, Hawass told the press that nothing had been stolen from the museum, although 70 pieces had been damaged and are currently being restored.
On Sunday morning, however, after the museum’s database and registrar unit checked the museum's inventory, eight pieces were found to be unaccounted for.
Among the missing pieces are two gilded wooden statues of King Tutankhamun, one of which shows the boy king paying homage to goddesses. The other is a torso of the king on a hunting trip armed with a harpoon.
Other stolen objects include a limestone statue of king Akhenaten; a statue of his wife, Queen Nefertiti, making offerings; a sandstone statue of a princess from the Amarna period; a stone statue of a scribe from the Amarna period; eleven Shawabti figurines of Yuya; and a heart-shaped scarab of Yuya.
Hawass told al-Masry al-Youm that the scarab of Yuya was found later on Sunday in the museum’s bazaar. “Now only seven pieces are missing. We made the announcement so that people could report to us if they see looters trying to sell or get the artifacts out of the country,” he said.
Investigations remain ongoing.
A warehouse in the Dahshur archaeological site was also broken into within the past few weeks, yet very few unregistered pieces were found missing. A magazine in Qantara, Sinai was also reported to have been looted.
And last Wednesday, amid increasing unrest in Upper Egypt, angry protesters had attempted to break into the regional museum.
Inventories are currently being checked and Hawass is expected to make a formal statement tomorrow about the status of Egypt's various museums.
