Cash crunch looms over Tutankhamun's 'new home'

Cairo

Egyptian curator Medhat Abdallah laughs when reminded of the "curse of Tutankhamun" as he cleans an ancient gilded bed found in the boy king's burial chamber nearly a century ago.

The 3,300-year-old relic is one of hundreds of artefacts, never before displayed, from the treasure of King Tutankhamun set to be unveiled in a "mega museum" under construction near the Giza pyramids.

"We are studying how these objects were made at that time. They will be displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum once it's ready," Abdallah said, as he inspected the relic in a laboratory at the new museum site.

But nearly a decade after the Grand Egyptian Museum dubbed "Tutankhamun's new home"  was conceived, the project is far from complete.Years of political turmoil and a financial squeeze have delayed the construction. Officials now say the museum will open in 2022 and not this year as previously scheduled.

About 5,000 workers toil over three shifts to build the museum on 47 hectares (117 acres) of land near the pyramids.It will display about 100,000 artefacts in five zones, including the entire Tutankhamun trove of about 4,500 relics.

Tutankhamun's mummy will remain in Luxor's Valley of the Kings where it was found in 1922.