Have some priceless Egyptian Museum artefacts been misplaced, or are they lost? Nevine El-Aref investigates The disappearance of three limestone statuettes from the Egyptian Museum's basement has opened a Pandora's Box of questions about the current state of the legendary underground storehouse. Early this week, when the Giza inspectorate asked for the return of 14 objects which had been placed on loan at the museum, curators realised that three of the pieces had vanished. In an attempt to find the missing items, nearly 40 inspectors have been exploring the museum basement, sorting through the overwhelmingly large collection of stored artefacts. The three limestone statuettes are a seated figure almost 24 cms tall, a 'pair statuette' 35 cms tall, and a small wooden sarcophagus containing an Osirian statuette. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni is calling for criminal and administrative investigations to find the whereabouts of the statuette and ascertain who is responsible for their disappearance. These are not the first objects to disappear from the museum basement. Last year a sandstone relief of the Nile god Hapi was misplaced, but was found after a thorough search which lasted two weeks. Also last year, 38 gold bracelets from the Roman period vanished. The gold bracelets, found in 1905 in the area of Kom Abu Bello in the Delta governorate of Beheira, are snake-shaped and decorated with precious stones. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, claimed that the statuettes could not have been stolen and may be hidden somewhere in the basement. He claimed that after the completion of the investigation those responsible for the loss would be severely punished. Hawass promised that similar problems would be prevented in the near future, since ID profiles were to be created for each artefact so movement from one hall to another could be followed. Meanwhile a small conflagration struck the Islamic Museum last Thursday, caused during restoration work in one of the exhibition halls. The blaze was contained without any casualties. To contain the flames, the museum's security personnel used 30 fire extinguishers provided in the museum. The fire resulted from a short circuit sparked when wooden scaffolding fell on an electric wire while electrical repair was being carried out. Two years ago, massive restoration work was started in the Islamic museum with a budget of LE80,000.
