中文標題沒將官員將受審翻譯出來。
埃及圖坦卡蒙黃金面具修復中受損
DECLAN WALSH 2016年1月25日
開羅——埃及行政檢察官表示，八名博物館員將面臨紀律審裁，因為他們對一次拙劣的圖坦卡蒙黃金面具修復工作負有責任。著名的圖坦卡蒙法老黃金喪葬面具是埃及最珍貴的文物之一，而前述修復工作給它造成了持久的損傷。
此次訴訟是一場發生在埃及博物館(Egyptian Museum)的尷尬事件的最新進展。事情始於2014年8月，當時開羅這座國家博物館的工人在修理面具展櫃里的一個燈具時，不慎將這件有3300年歷史的文物的鬍子撞掉，然後他們又試圖把鬍子粘回去，導致情況進一步惡化。
- 檢視大圖
Hassan Ammar/Associated Press圖坦卡蒙法老黃金面具在開羅的埃及博物館中展示。2014年8月，工人不慎撞掉了它的鬍鬚。
博物館員工使用不溶性環氧樹脂，將藍金兩色的鬍鬚粘回到面具上時，遊客拍下了他們的照片。修復行動在鬍鬚邊緣留下一圈明顯可見的膠水。有人擔心這種破壞是不可逆的，不過事實證明並非如此，德國專家小心翼翼地去除了環氧樹脂，並用古埃及人使用的粘接劑——蜂蠟——修復了純金面具。
上月，面具回到了公開展示區，不過工作人員最初嘗試用尖銳物體去除膠漬的時候，在面具上留下一些細微劃痕。負責調查涉公務員違法行為的行政檢察機關發表聲明，指控八名館員犯有「重大過失，公然違反科學和專業規則」，其中包括博物館的一名前任館長以及前修復工作負責人。
「為了掩蓋他們造成的破壞，他們用手術刀和金屬工具等鋒利的器械去除面具上的膠水痕迹，結果造成了持續的損傷和劃痕，」聲明稱。
遭到指控的館員已被停職，可能會面臨解僱和重金罰款，但不會入獄。
考古學家莫妮卡·漢娜(Monica Hanna)說，大多數遊客不會看到面具上的劃痕。她是旨在保護埃及文化遺產的文物工作組(Heritage Task Force)的成員。漢娜把這件事歸咎於埃及博物館的水平下降。這座博物館有104年歷史，是世界上最大的木乃伊和其他法老文物收藏館，但是近年來，它遭受了越來越嚴重的忽視。
「那裡的工作人員青黃不接，」她說。「經驗豐富的人退休了，新人又沒有接受過充分培訓。」
漢娜說，未來幾年，那裡的部分文物將被轉移到兩座新的博物館——一座是耗資8億美元的大埃及博物館(Grand Egyptian Museum)，正在吉薩金字塔附近施工建設，計劃於2018年開放；另一座是已經竣工但尚未對公眾開放的埃及文明國家博物館(National Museum of Egyptian Civilization)。
1922年，英國考古學家霍華德·卡特(Howard Carter)在帝王谷發現了神秘的少年法老圖坦卡蒙的面具。從此之後，埃及古物學受到全球熱捧，成為埃及旅遊業的基石。
近年來，埃及旅遊業遭受了重創。最初是因為2011年埃及總統胡斯尼·穆巴拉克(Hosni Mubarak)倒台後發生的騷亂，然後在2013年，軍方推翻穆斯林兄弟會(Muslim Brotherhood)出身的總統穆罕默德·穆爾西(Mohamed Morsi)之後，埃及又出現了動蕩。
遊客遭到伊斯蘭極端分子的攻擊；八名墨西哥人被埃及安全部隊誤認為武裝分子並開槍射殺；去年10月，一架俄羅斯民航客機疑遭炸彈襲擊，224人命喪一處紅海度假勝地附近。
但是近幾個月來，圖坦卡蒙引起了新一輪的興趣，因為英國的埃及古物學者尼古拉斯·里夫斯(Nicholas Reeves)提出了一個很吸引人的假說，稱圖坦卡蒙的墓室背後隱藏着久尋不見的納芙蒂蒂王后(Queen Nefertiti)墓。
翻譯：土土
Amina Ismail對本文有報道貢獻。
Egyptian Museum Officials Face Tribunal for Damaging King Tutankhamen’s Mask
DECLAN WALSH January 25, 2016CAIRO — 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 artifacts, the country’s administrative 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 artifact as they repaired a light fixture in its display case, and then made things worse by trying to glue it back on.
- 檢視大圖Hassan Ammar/Associated PressThe gold mask of King Tutankhamen in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Workers accidentally knocked the beard off in August 2014.
Tourists took photos of museum employees as they reattached the blue-and-gold beard using an insoluble epoxy resin that left a visible ring of glue around the edge of the beard. Fears that the damage was irreversible proved unfounded, however, after German experts carefully removed the epoxy and restored the solid gold mask using beeswax, the adhesive used by the ancient Egyptians.
The mask was returned to public display last month, albeit with some fine scratches caused by improvised earlier attempts to remove the glue stains using a sharp object. In a statement, the administrative prosecution authority, which investigates legal violations involving public servants, accused eight officials, including a former director of the museum and a former head of restoration, of “gross negligence and blatant violation of scientific and professional rules.”
“In an attempt to cover up the damage they inflicted, they used sharp instruments such as scalpels and metal tools to remove traces of the glue on the mask, causing damage and scratches that remain,” the statement said.
The accused officials have been suspended from their jobs and now face possible dismissal and heavy fines, but they will not go to prison.
The scratches to the mask will not be visible to most visitors, according to Monica Hanna, an archaeologist and a member of Egypt’s Heritage Task Force, an initiative to protect the nation’s cultural heritage. Ms. Hanna blamed the debacle on declining standards at the 104-year-old museum, which is home to the world’s largest collection of mummies and other Pharaonic antiquities but has become increasingly neglected in recent years.
“There’s been a shift in the people working there,” she said. “The experienced people have retired and the new ones do not have adequate training.”
Ms. Hanna said part of the collection was set to be shifted to two new museums in the coming years — the Grand Egyptian Museum, an $800 million project under construction near the Giza pyramids and scheduled to open in 2018, and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which has been completed but is yet to open to the public.
The mask of Tutankhamen, an enigmatic young king, was discovered by the British archaeologist Howard Carter at the Valley of the Kings in 1922. It set off a global fascination with Egyptology that became a cornerstone of Egypt’s tourism industry.
That industry has suffered badly in recent years, first because of the unrest that followed the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, then because of the turmoil that erupted in 2013 after the military deposed President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Tourists have been attacked by Islamist extremists; eight Mexicans were killed by Egyptian security forces when they were mistaken for militants; and in October a suspected bomb brought down a Russian airliner, killing 224 people near a Red Sea resort.
In recent months, though, Tutankhamen became the focus of renewed interest after the British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves promoted a tantalizing theory that behind his burial chamber lies the long-sought tomb of Queen Nefertiti.
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