The intervention was carried out as the long, narrow, blue and gold beard suffered a botched repair more than a year ago.
Braided like a pigtail with the end jutting forward, the beard was unintentionally severed from the chin in August 2014 by workers adjusting the lighting in the case holding the priceless artifact.
Panicked curators did further damage by hastily gluing the beard back onto the fragile 3,300-year-old mask with fast-drying epoxy normally used for wood or metal.
Moreover, the glue was used abundantly, causing it to flow along the beard and chin.
News about the botched repair broke in January, followed by a press conference by Egypt’s antiquities ministry. At the news conference German restorer Christian Eckmann told reporters that the mask could be properly restored after removing the glue.
A German-Egyptian team led by Eckmann began the restoration by studying the best materials to remove the epoxy and reattach the beard.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Eckmann told reporters his team resolved to detach the glue using old-fashioned tools.
“We used wooden tools, spatulas, other wooden instruments,” he told the Associated Press.
“In addition, we slightly warmed up the adhesive,” Eckmann said.
The beard was loose when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s treasure-packed tomb in 1922 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. It was re-affixed with adhesive in 1946.
Read more at Discovery News
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