The Grand Egyptian Museum

This guide to the Grand Egyptian Museum follows a single accident: the morning in August 2014 when a museum worker cleaning a display case watched Tutankhamun's golden burial mask lose its beard. It traces the panicked repair that followed, the months of silence before a photograph exposed it, and the court case that named eight museum staff, including a former director. A German conservator was eventually called in, working the gold millimeter by millimeter with only warmth and wooden tools.