The bracelet belonged to Pharaoh Amenemope, who ruled around 1000 B.C.E., during ancient Egypt's 21st Dynasty.
Egyptian MuseumThe stolen bracelet, which once belonged to Pharaoh Amenemope.
While preparing ancient artifacts for an exhibit in Italy, officials at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo made a horrifying discovery. One of the artifacts, a 3,000-year-old golden bracelet that once belonged to a pharaoh, was missing. To the outrage of many Egyptians, it was later determined that the bracelet had been stolen, sold, and melted down.
The loss of the artifact hit hard in Egypt, where there’s a great national pride in the country’s history. It also means that part of the pharaoh’s story will forever be incomplete.
The Stolen Pharaoh’s Bracelet
According to the Associated Press, the theft of the bracelet was discovered while officials from the Egyptian Museum were itemizing artifacts ahead of a shipment to an exhibition in Rome. Egyptian officials swiftly began a search for the artifact, which the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities described as “a gold bracelet with a spherical lapis lazuli bead” in a statement from Sept. 16.
Bs0u10e01/Wikimedia CommonsThe Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where the 3,000-year-old gold bracelet was previously held before its theft in September 2025.
After two days of speculation about who took the bracelet, officials announced on Sept. 18 that they had identified the thief. They claimed that a restoration specialist at the Egyptian Museum had taken the bracelet and then given the artifact to someone she knew who owned a silver shop in Cairo. The shop owner, in turn, sold the bracelet to a gold workshop for around $3,800, which then sold the bracelet once again, this time to a smelter for roughly $4,000.
At that point, the ancient artifact was melted down to reuse its gold in other jewelry.
Not only did four suspects confess to the theft, but investigators also found video evidence of the bracelet’s journey, including footage of a shop owner receiving the bracelet, weighing it, and then paying another one of the suspects.
The restoration specialist and the silver shop owner are still being detained and may face fines of up to $100,000 and even life in prison. The other two suspects have been ordered to be released, provided they can pay bail.
Egyptian MuseumThe interior of the Egyptian Museum.
News of the bracelet’s theft and destruction was met with outrage in Egypt, where there’s great national pride in ancient Egyptian history. The bracelet is obviously irreplaceable, a priceless object with a value drawn from both its gold and its place in the country’s ancient past. Its theft and destruction also mean that historians have lost a piece of the story about its owner, Amenemope.
Pharaoh Amenemope And His Bracelet
Amenemope ruled Egypt from Tanis in the Nile Delta during Egypt’s 21st Dynasty (which lasted from roughly 1076 B.C.E. until 944 B.C.E.). He came to power around 993 B.C.E., upon the death of his father, Psusennes I, and ruled for about nine years. Unlike other pharaohs, Amenemope did not construct grand monuments during his reign, but he is regarded as a decent ruler who maintained stability in Egypt during his time in power.
Dale Cruise/Wikimedia CommonsPharaoh Amenemope’s funerary mask.
When he died around 984 B.C.E., Amenemope was laid to rest in the royal necropolis in Tanis. Almost 3,000 years later, the Tanis necropolis was discovered by the French archaeologist Pierre Montet. Thousands of ancient artifacts were recovered from the site, including Amenemope’s golden bracelet. For ancient Egyptians, gold was thought to represent the flesh of the gods, while the single bead of lapis lazuli represented the gods’ hair.
But, sadly, this 3,000-year-old artifact is now lost. While some stolen artifacts, like erotic Pompeii mosaics and even Theodore Roosevelt’s pocket watch, were recovered decades after they were stolen, the pharaoh’s golden bracelet is tragically gone for good. With it, Egypt also loses a small but significant piece of the country’s ancient past.
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