In January 2015, conservators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo admitted an inappropriate adhesive was used to affix the blue and gold beard on the burial mask of King Tut (Pharaoh Tutankhamum) after it has been damaged the previous year:
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— 'D91(J 'D,/J/ (@alaraby_ar) January 22, 2015
The conservators gave varying accounts of what happened, but the one thing they did agree upon was the damage done to King Tut's beard was irreversible:
In addition to the hasty glue job, which left a thin layer of translucent yellow between King Tut's beard and chin, the 3,300-year-old relic was also scratched during the amateur repair:
The burial mask was discovered in King Tut's tomb in 1922 and has since become one of Egypt's most famous relics and one of the biggest draws for visitors to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
According to the Egyptian news site Al Araby Al Jadeed, the museum decided to dim the lights in the room housing King Tut's mask in order to hide the damage from viewers:
Last updated: 22 January 2015