Fixing Tutankhamun's beard: 'unfortunately they used epoxy'

Guardian UK ^ | Tuesday 20 October 2015, Last modified on Wednesday 21 October 2015 | Associated Press in Cairo

[SunkenCiv]

Restorers have put their work on the famed golden burial mask of King Tutankhamun on display in Cairo, over a year after the beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued back on with epoxy.

A German-Egyptian team of experts showed off the mask in a laboratory in the Egyptian Museum, detailing plans for how the epoxy will be scraped off and the beard carefully removed before being reattached by a method to be determined by a joint scientific committee.

Christian Eckmann, the lead restoration specialist, said the work should take a month or two, depending on how long it takes to remove the beard, which will be attached after research into how the mask and beard attachment were originally made and joined...

A museum employee knocked the beard off during work on the relic's lighting in August 2014, after which it was hastily reattached with epoxy. When the error was revealed in January the antiquities ministry quickly called a press conference where Eckmann said he and an Egyptian team could fix the epoxy job and avoid permanent damage.

The 3,300-year-old pharaonic mask was discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb along with other artefacts by British archeologists in 1922, sparking worldwide interest in archaeology and ancient Egypt.

It is arguably the best-known piece in the museum, one of Cairo's main tourist sites, which was built in 1902 and houses ancient Egyptian artefacts and mummies.

Eckmann said that during the restoration experts would conduct a detailed study of ancient techniques and materials used to make the mask.

[Covenantor]

I was trying to pin down the exact year the original Tut exhibition arrived in NYC in the late seventies and was surprised to learn there’s currently a new exhibition tour.

[Redcitizen]

They’ll get it fixed right in a few Horus. Unless Isis comes along to smash the whole thing.

[roamer_1]

I predict the “joint scientific committee” will ultimately recommend that a mixture of Bisphenol A Resin, Diisodecyl Phthalate and Magnesium Silicate, be used to permanently reattach King TUt’s beard.

Catalytic homopolymerisation would occur from such a mixture (LOL! I see what you did there, and you are probably right)...