King Tut's Burial Mask Has Been "Irreversibly Damaged"

[Nutso]

http://io9.com/king-tuts-burial-mask-ha ... 1681085211

The most famous archaeological relic in the world has been damaged during a botched cleaning attempt. After being knocked off, the blue and gold braided beard on King Tut's burial mask was "hastily" glued back on with an inappropriate adhesive, damaging the item even further.
Above: King Tut's burial mask before the incident. (Egyptian Museum in Cairo)

Brace yourselves, folks. This story is all kinds of messed up. As The Associated Press is reporting, it appears that the beard was quickly glued back on by curators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo with epoxy, an "irreversible material" that's completely unsuitable for a restoration effort of this importance. Conservators at the museum revealed the incident yesterday.

Frustratingly, the story isn't entirely clear because three of the museum's curators are offering conflicting accounts. It's not known when the incident happened, or whether the iconic beard was accidentally knocked off or removed because it was loose. What we do know, however, is that the curators were "ordered" from above to fix it quickly and that epoxy was used. All three curators refused to give their names for fear of professional reprisals. From the AP report:

"The mask should have been taken to the conservation lab but they were in a rush to get it displayed quickly again and used this quick drying, irreversible material," the conservator added.

The conservator said that the mask now shows a gap between the face and the beard, whereas before it was directly attached: "Now you can see a layer of transparent yellow."

But the story gets worse. It appears that the curators inadvertently got some of the epoxy on the face of the mask — and they used a spatula in an effort to get it off, damaging the relic even further:

Another museum conservator, who was present at the time of the repair, said that epoxy had dried on the face of the boy king's mask and that a colleague used a spatula to remove it, leaving scratches. The first conservator, who inspects the artifact regularly, confirmed the scratches and said it was clear that they had been made by a tool used to scrape off the epoxy.

Egypt's Antiquities Ministry and the museum administration are not responding to media requests, but one of the conservators said an investigation is currently underway.

[Griffin]

All three curators refused to give their names for fear of professional reprisals.

Were they 'Moe, Larry, and Curly' by any chance

[Nutso]

All three curators refused to give their names for fear of professional reprisals.

Were they 'Moe, Larry, and Curly' by any chance

As was said in the comments:

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

All three curators refused to give their names for fear of professional reprisals.

Were they 'Moe, Larry, and Curly' by any chance

No, they would've admitted it.

Oh, good fucking lord this pisses me off as much as Greenpeace and the Nazca Lines!

[McAvoy]

Shit happens but these guys should be fired and banned from anything remotely historic.

Truly Three Stooges.

[Mikey]

Wait, Striker: why would the Nazca lines piss you off?

Anyway, this is terrible. I recall vividly going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a young boy to see a traveling exhibit of Carter's finds from Tut's tomb - while many kids my age at that time idolized sports stars or celebrities, one of the heroes of my childhood was Howard Carter. That experience encouraged and developed an abiding love of Egyptology, archaeology in general, and anthropology of ancient cultures which is still with me. Now, I don't know if the "beard" on the burial mask was fashioned at all like the "beards" worn by some Middle and Young Kingdom pharoahs, which were removable, jewelled appliances and served as a symbolf of royalty; but in any event this occurrence is less tragic for the actual damage to the artifact and more tragic for the absolute lack of respect and concern for the work of Carter, the endeavor of Carnarvon, and all the effort of archaeology from Napolen to Schliemann to Hawass.

[McAvoy]

Greenpeace awhile ago laid out a banner that could be seen from an airplane near one of the Nazca lines. The stunt damaged it.

[Mikey]

Greenpeace awhile ago laid out a banner that could be seen from an airplane near one of the Nazca lines. The stunt damaged it.

Oh, so those aren't two separate things that bother Striker. Check.

[Teaos]

Saw it it person, it was the reason I no longer support repatriating artifacts to their home countries. Hundreds of amazing artifacts to damp, dusty dark cases being ill treated while bringing in millions of dollars. Give it all the people who can take care of it.

[Jim]

All three curators refused to give their names for fear of professional reprisals.

Were they 'Moe, Larry, and Curly' by any chance

How many have direct access to work on the mask? Doesn't seem like it would be difficult to figure out.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Wait, Striker: why would the Nazca lines piss you off?

Greenpeace awhile ago laid out a banner that could be seen from an airplane near one of the Nazca lines. The stunt damaged it.

What McAvoy said. Sorry for the confusion, there.

but yeah, both are complete bullshit. I'm not sure which one enrage me more. Maybe the mask because it was a tragedy of errors by people you would think would know better.

[Mikey]

You might be right. Greenpeace... well, you'd expect them to be a bunch of moronic loonies.

[McAvoy]

You might be right. Greenpeace... well, you'd expect them to be a bunch of moronic loonies.

Just like HSUS, PETA, Earth First and so forth.

I found many of them operate without common sense. They must think common sense is two pennies with the same date on them.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

You might be right. Greenpeace... well, you'd expect them to be a bunch of moronic loonies.

yeah. This would be funny if it wasn't so tragic and so fucking incompetent of the curators.

[Mikey]

Like I said, it's tragic not for the act itself but because it represents people pissing all over the legacy of Heyerdahl, Schliemann, Leakey, Carter (obviously,) Evans, Stephens, et. al.