The disappearance of 38 gold bracelets and rings has pushed the Egyptian Museum into an ambitious plan to organise its troubled storage process. Nevine El-Aref reports For more than two years, two specialised committees have tried to find 36 gold bracelets and two gold rings dating back to the Roman Empire amongst the vast collection of antiquities haphazardly stored in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. The loss of the items was first reported during a regular inventory of items that one of the museum's curators was responsible for. Recently, with the curator's pending retirement, another inventory took place; again, the items came up unaccounted for, calling attention to the fact that two separate committees have been unable to locate them since their disappearance was first noted over two years earlier. While the search continues, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has simultaneously sent the case to both the general and administrative prosecutors for investigations. "I hope that these objects were not robbed," Hosni said, "and are just misplaced among the overwhelming number of artefacts in the basement." Mahmoud Mabrouk, head of the most recent search committee, said that according to official museum documents, the jewels were last seen in 1984, after they toured Japan and were later brought back to the museum. Maboruk said they were originally unearthed in 1905 at Kom Abu Bello in the Delta city of Beheira. Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Zahi Hawass is convinced that the bracelets and rings are hidden somewhere in the museum. It would be too difficult to rob such a large number of pieces at once, said Hawass, who placed the blame for their loss on mismanagement at the museum. Hawass suggested that the items were either somewhere in the basement or inside the wooden base of a showcase. "The Egyptian Museum is like a maze of corridors," Hawass said. "No one knows anything about its contents." Hawass said that for over 100 years the museum has been a repository for most of the finds unearthed by foreign and Egyptian excavation missions. Because of poor documentation, however, items are often difficult to find amidst the piles of boxes, wooden plaques, dust and rubble. Hawass mentioned a statue of Aphrodite that he himself discovered 25 years ago in the Giza Plateau as an example of an artefact that is stored somewhere in the museum's basement, that would be nearly impossible to find at present. This sad state of affairs has prompted the museum to embark on an ambitious five-year project to accurately catalogue the 90,000 pieces in the basement. With the help of a specialised firm, the items will be moved from the basement to a Giza storehouse where they will be recorded, photographed and restored. Hawass said the next five years would be "a revolutionary era for the Egyptian Museum". When the objects are brought back to the museum's basement, it will have been transformed into a space much "like the British Museum's basement, where the artefacts are properly placed, numbered and catalogued". The museum's curators will also be properly trained in modern techniques. Three weeks ago, rumours spread that a limestone relief featuring the Nile god Hapy had also been lost in the basement. The resulting four-hour search ended with sighs of relief when the piece was finally found.
