Egyptian museum officials face trial for sloppy repair on King Tut's burial mask

Cairo

EIGHT Egyptian museum officials are to face a disciplinary tribunal for their role in a botched repair job that caused lasting damage to the famed golden burial mask of King Tutankhamen, one of the country's most prized artefacts, Egypt's public prosecutor has said.

The judicial action is the latest step in an embarrassing saga at the state-run Egyptian Museum in Cairo that started in August 2014 when workers accidentally knocked the beard from the 3,300-year-old artefact as they repaired a light fixture in its display case, and then made things worse by trying to glue it back on.