A collection of 614 artefacts were transported from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) by the pyramids on Monday.

Osama Abu El-Kheir, general director of the Conservation Department at the GEM, said that the collection contains 11 objects from the treasure sof King Tutankhamun, among them the king’s diadem.

Also included are items from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period, including a wooden box of King Amenhotep II covered with a layer of a white mortar and engraved with the king's cartouche and a hieratic text, as well as a collection of Osirian statuettes and a limestone statue of the fifth dynasty’s top official in the royal palace, Senefer, and a 26th dynasty relief bearing the image of a sphinx.

leave of tutankhamun's diadem

“The transfer of Tutankhamun’s diadem was really a challenge,” Eissa Zaidan, head of the First Aid Restoration Department at the GEM told Ahram Online.

He explained that the diadem was in a very poor conservation condition. The restoration team used all the required scientific methods to protect the diadem and covered it with special kind of antibacterial and anti-acidic foam to guarantee its safe arrival, he explained.

The team

After their arrival, the artefacts were stored inside the GEM’s Conservation Centre,

restoration of the osirian statue

The new museum is scheduled to open in 2020.