CAIRO: The golden mask of Tutankhamun is being scanned and photographed in preparation for a comprehensive renovation process, The Egyptian Museum Director Mahmoud al-Halwagy told the state news agency Tuesday.
Renovating the museum’s masterpiece will be funded by the German Foreign Ministry, known as the Federal Foreign Office.
“As a part of its Cultural Preservation Program, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office is providing 50,000 euros ($57,000) to help fund the restoration of the gold mask from the burial treasure of the Egyptian King Tutankhamen,” according to the ministry’s Tuesday press release.
The project will be implemented by the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz in consultation with an Egyptian‑German scientific commission, according to the press release.
In January, the 3,300 year-old funerary mask underwent inappropriate restoration by workers who reportedly used household epoxy glue to reattach its beard broken during a routine renovation process.
“The focus of the work, as well as the conservation and analysis of the mask, is on the correct attachment of the mask’s ceremonial beard,” the press release said.
The mask along with over 4,000 artifacts were found in Tutankhamun’s undisturbed tomb that was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings west of Luxor.
Misplacement of the ceremonial beard with spots of adhesive on the neck of the mask, scratches in the surface of the mask’s right cheekbone and an unusual luminosity of the artifact as a whole are among the concerns raised following the inappropriate renovation.