Egypt started the first-ever restoration work on a gold-covered sarcophagus of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun, ahead of the country's new museum opening next year, Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany, said Sunday.
Anany told reporters that work on the outermost coffin, which is made of wood and gilded with gold, is expected to take at least eight months.
He said that's because "the state of conservation is very fragile, as it was never restored" since 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the intact 3,000-year-old tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The tomb was untouched and included about 5,000 artifacts.
The coffin remained in the tomb until July, when it was moved to the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), being built near the famed pyramids of Giza outside Cairo.
“The coffin has suffered a lot of damage, including cracks in the golden layers of plaster and a general weakness in all golden layers,” Eissa Zidan, Head of the First Aid Restoration Department at the GEM, said last month.
The coffin and the treasured collection of Tutankhamun’s tomb are expected to be the centerpiece of the GEM, which has been under construction for about 15 years and is partially funded by Japan.
Tutankhamun ascended the throne at age nine, ruling until his death at age 18 or 19.
