King Tut’s Sister Stolen From Museum, Egyptian Officials Issue International Alert

Damaged pharaonic objects lie on the floor and in broken cases in the Malawi Antiquities Museum after it was ransacked and looted between the evening of Thursday, Aug. 15 and the morning of Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, in Malawi, south of Minya, Egypt. The theft of about 1,000 artifacts spanning some 3,500 years of history from a small antiquities museum south of Cairo showcases the tenuous security in the provinces. AP Photo/Roger Anis, El Shorouk Newspaper, File

King Tut’s sister was stolen along with hundreds of other items from a museum in Egypt, prompting officials to issue an international alert.

The statuette of Tutankhamun’s sister went missing after the Mallawi City Museum was looted this summer amid clashes between Egyptian authorities and the public. 

The statuette is a carved limestone figurine that was the prize exhibit of the museum, reported the Daily Telegraph. The exhibit was slated for transfer to a new museum being built nearby to honor the family of Akhenaten, King Tut’s father. 

(Mallawai City Museum)

Around 1,000 objects, dated from the beginning of the Egyptian history, were stolen, according to UNESCO. That included coins, jewels, and statues.

“I firmly condemn the attacks against the cultural institutions of the country and the looting of its cultural property,” said Irina Bokova, UNESCO director-general, in a statement at the time. “This constitutes irreversible damage to the history and identity of the Egyptian people.”

More than 600 of the items have been returned, or seized by police. 

Some archaelogists told the Telegraph that the looting may have been designed to capture certain objects to sell, such as the statuette of King Tut’s sister.