8 Egyptians accused of scratching King Tut's mask headed to trial

The former head of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and seven other people, including members of a conservation team, are being charged with gross negligence and were referred to a disciplinary court on Sunday after prosecutors say they damaged the solid gold, 3,300-year-old mask of King Tutankhamun.

Prosecutors say that in August 2014 while working on the lighting in the museum, curators knocked the mask over, and its beard popped off. The team carelessly glued it back on using epoxy, and "in an attempt to cover up the damage they inflicted, they used sharp instruments such as scalpels and metal tools to remove traces of adhesive on the mask, causing damage and scratches that remain," prosecutors said in a statement.

German restoration expert Christian Eckmann spent two months leading repair work on the mask, and he told The Guardian it was a painstaking process. "We have some uncertainties now, we don't know how deep the glue went inside the beard, and so we don't know how long it will take to remove the beard," he said. "It's unfortunately epoxy resin, which is not soluble."

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