Cairo — A uncommon 4,000-year-old limestone aid has vanished from a tomb in Egypt’s well-known Saqqara Necropolis, officers say, within the second main obvious theft of an antiquity in simply weeks.
The traditional paintings’s disappearance was reported over the weekend, simply greater than three weeks after officers confirmed {that a} golden bracelet stolen from the Egyptian Museum by a restoration employee had been sold on and then melted down.
The uncommon limestone aid vanished from a Fifth Dynasty tomb, courting to between 2500 and 2350 B.C., within the Saqqara Necropolis, south of Cairo, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities mentioned in a statement posted on-line Sunday.
The tomb belonged to a high-ranking official named Khenti Ka, who held titles together with “Priest of the Goddess Maat” and “Overseer of the Royal Palace,” archaeologist Ali Abu Deshish instructed CBS Information.
“The tomb is distinguished by its outstanding reliefs portraying scenes of day by day life in historic Egypt,” Abu Deshish mentioned.
Marcelino Pozo/marcelinopozo/Getty 
Calling the theft “a disaster by all requirements,” he mentioned Egypt’s antiquities “will not be on the market. They belong to the heritage of all humanity.”
The roughly 16 x 24-inch aid that’s now lacking depicts the three historic Egyptian seasons: Akhet (inundation), Peret (progress), and Shemu (harvest).
Native media reported that the artifact appeared to have been minimize out of the wall of the tomb with an electrical noticed.
The ministry mentioned the tomb had been fully sealed and was used as a space for storing for antiquities since its discovery within the Fifties, and it had not been opened since 2019.
Upon discovering the aid lacking, an archaeological committee was fashioned to stock all the tomb’s contents. After confirming media studies of the disappearance, the ministry mentioned “all essential authorized measures have been taken and all the matter has been referred to the Public Prosecution for investigation.”
The incident comes simply weeks earlier than the scheduled opening ceremony of the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum, a sprawling, 5.2-million-square-foot facility close to the traditional pyramids of Giza that has taken years and greater than $1 billion to deliver to fruition. It’s supposed to be a brand new cornerstone of Egypt’s antiquities-focused tourism trade.
It additionally comes simply weeks after officers confirmed that the roughly 3,000-year-old golden bracelet believed to have been worn by a pharaoh had disappeared from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Egyptian Ministry of Inside 
Authorities found that it was stolen by a museum restoration employee, bought for lower than $4,000 after which melted down and misplaced eternally.
In contrast to within the case of the bracelet, specialists imagine whoever stole the limestone aid might have identified the true worth of the artifact.
“It isn’t merely an ornamental artifact however one which carries profound symbolic that means associated to the cycle of life, agriculture, and fertility in historic Egyptian perception, which means that whoever stole it understood its true worth and scholarly significance,” Abu Deshish instructed CBS Information.
