King Tut's Beard Glued Back On Improperly

Conservators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo said on Friday that the beard on the mask of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut) was improperly glued back on after it was knocked off during a cleaning sometime last year, according to Al Ahram.

According to the Egyptian website, the beard somehow got knocked off in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and someone tried to quickly cover up the blunder and get the mask back on display, and they glued it back on with epoxy, reportedly on orders from senior museum management. The epoxy was the wrong material to use.

The mask now shows a layer of yellow where the glue was placed, and the damage is irreversible.

Also the conservators scratched the face of the mask, as they tried to scrape the extra epoxy off, apparently with a spatula.