By AP
CAIRO: Egypt’s antiquities chief says a full inventory of the Egyptian Museum has found that looters escaped with several items during the anti-government unrest, including two gilded wooden statues of Tutankhamun.
The 18-day uprising that forced out President Hosni Mubarak engulfed the areas around the museum, on the edge of Cairo’s Tahrir Square. On Jan. 28, looters climbed a fire escape to the museum roof and lowered themselves on ropes from a glass pane ceiling onto the museum’s top floor.
Around 70 objects were damaged, but until Sunday’s announcement, it was not known whether anything was missing.
Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass said the museum’s database department determined 18 objects were gone. Investigators were questioning those already in custody since the break-in last month.
