Roundup: Egypt King Tut's beard "randomly" glued back on: experts

The way the braided beard of Egyptian Pharaonic masterpiece King Tutankhamun's mask was glued back on random and lacking scientific standards, said Egyptian experts.

Although it King Tut's beard broke off and glued back on in August 2014, the issue was the talk of the hour over the past few days, as the job did not seem to have been perfectly done that the joint between the beard and the mask was a little wider than before and tiny trace of glue could be noticed if compared to previous photos of the 3,000-year-old golden mask.

"It is a disaster and everyone involved must be questioned," Zahi Hawass, world-renowned Egyptologist and former antiquities minister, told Xinhua, lamenting that the way this rare masterpiece was treated showed backwardness in the field.

"A repairer cannot be left to work on his own, and the process is supposed to be closely and attentively supervised by specialists and archeologists," Hawass continued, arguing that it was "a completely random work" and calling for immediate investigation into the issue.

Hawass said that epoxy material is no longer used nowadays, referring to the kind of glue used in the process, yet he confirmed that Egypt have very good and qualified repairers but they are neglected.

King Tutankhamun's burial mask was separated from the braided beard when the young king's nearly intact tomb was discovered by British archeologists Howard Carter and George Herbert along with a legendary trove of funerary objects in 1922.

On Saturday, the antiquities ministry held a press conference at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where Minister Mamdouh al-Damati admitted that epoxy material was inappropriately used to glue King Tut's bread and that the ministry will probe into the whole process, yet he said there was "media exaggeration" over the whole thing as the use of epoxy is still controversial among experts themselves.

The minister then invited the media to take a look at the mask in its glass showcase in the second floor of the museum and even allowed taking photos. The mask with the beard looked fine but the joint did not look perfect if closely examined.

German restoration specialist Christian Eckmann, who spoke at the conference in Cairo, agreed that the job "could have been executed in a much better way" but he stressed that the mask is not in danger as the bond between the beard and the mask is strong.

Eckmann added that epoxy material can be removed and the mask can return to its glory after a committee of conservators, archeologists and natural scientists develop a plan for its re-conservation.

"The use of epoxy is not the best but it is a solution," Eckmann said, "However this measure was unfortunately done not really properly, so you can see now some remains of glue at the beard."

Eckmann noted that the mask's beard was loose when Carter discovered it in 1922 and it was re-affixed in 1941.

For his part, Mohamed Abdel-Hadi, professor of repairation at Antiquities College in Cairo University, told Xinhua that the epoxy used in the process was of low quality.

"A low-quality local kind of epoxy was used to glue back King Tut's beard, while an imported, high-quality transparent type of epoxy could have been used in this case," the professor told Xinhua, arguing this showed negligence and irresponsibility on the part of those in charge.

Professor Abdel-Hadi said that removing this material after being glued is very difficult and it needs high technology to be perfectly done.

"King Tut's beard was glued back randomly by non-specialists and without specialized supervision," the professor said, citing that in the Louvre Museum in Paris or the Metropolitan Museum in New York City they form a scientific technical committee before repairing any piece to decide the way of reparation and the material to be used. "That was not the case in the Egyptian Museum."

Abdel-Hadi lamented that "this random work" would give a chance for foreign missions to interfere and prevent reparation of Pharaonic masterpieces in Egypt without their supervision considering them part of the human heritage.

King Tut beard issue raised a worldwide concern due to the antiquity's universal fame.

"When King Tut's tomb was discovered in 1922 at the Valley of Kings west of Luxor, it was nearly intact with more than 5,000 ancient pieces inside, unlike many famous ancient tombs that were looted before discovery like that of King Ramses II," Mostafa al-Wazir, a director of antiquities region in Upper Egypt, told Xinhua. Endit