King Tutankhamun Botched Beard Mask Prompts 8 Egypt Workers to Face Negligence Charges

Back in 2014, it was revealed that the beard on the iconic King Tutankhamun burial mask had fallen off and a few Cairo museum workers had desperately tried to glue it back on, causing a botched job on one of the ancient world's biggest treasures. Now, eight workers from the Egypt Museum are being charged with negligence on the pharaoh's death mask.

According to The Guardian, the eight Egyptian nationals currently facing charges include the person who was the head of the Egyptian Museum as well as the chief of the restoration department. They're now facing the possibility of fines, disciplinary measures and even dismissals (though no prison time) after damaging the integrity of perhaps the most iconic burial mask in the country's history, a 3,300-year-old object.

In 2014, the mask was apparently knocked off by accident and its beard suffered damages, so museum workers decided that the best way to fix it up was with epoxy. Obviously, this meant compromising the artistic and historic integrity of object that's thousands of years of age.

Late last year, a team of German and Egyptian specialists finally managed to recover the best state possible of this historic piece, removing the epoxy and using a much more convenient way to glue King Tut's beard back: beeswax, the usual adhesive for ancient pieces. Last month, the mask was finally put back on display. Still, the botched attempt resulted in a scratch on the historic artifact.

The Irish Times reports that most of the damage caused by the first attempts to reattach the mask's beard won't be noticeable to most visitors. Still, the ongoing and heavily embarrassing issue has brought a new conversation into light—the current decline of standards in the maintenance of Egyptian cultural heritage, as one of the countries with the richest history in the world.

"There's been a shift in the people working there," said Monica Hanna, an archeologist as well as member of a national body created to protect the country's history, Egypt's Heritage Task Force. "The experienced people have retired and the new ones do not have adequate training."