奇速英语

法老面具的胡须掉了！

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo acknowledged on Saturday that one of its greatest treasures, the mask of King Tutankhamun, had been glued back together after being damaged, but insisted the item could be restored to its former glory.

The golden mask's beard was separated in August, something the museum had not made public until photographs on the Internet showing a line of glue around its chin.

"The beard broke off when museum workers were changing the lights in its display case and accidentally touched the mask, "the antiquities ministry said.

Christian Eckmann, a German conservator brought in to evaluate the damage, told reporters on Saturday that the seriousness of the damage had been exaggerated.

"The use of epoxy is not the best, but it is a solution," he said at a news conference alongside the minister of antiquities. "However, this measure was unfortunately done not really properly, so you can see now some remains of glue at the beard."

However, gluing the king's beard on is not exceptional. The beard was not fixed to the mask when it was dug out, Eckmann said, and it was brought to the Egyptian Museum with its beard unattached in 1924. It was not until 1941 that the beard piece was reattached to the mask with glue that has deteriorated over the past 70 years, making the accident in August more likely, Eckmann said.