Egyptian man protesting in Cairo (Courtesy of Creative Commons).

At the Cairo Museum, nine men are reported to have decapitated two 3300-year-old mummies – one of King Tut – and damaged more than 100 other artifacts. Egyptian soldiers arrested more than 50 thieves who were trying to steal the nation's treasures, according to the New York Daily News.

Many looters are using the chaos induced by the demonstrations as cover.

The looting began last Friday, as plunderers broke into the Egyptian Museum, which was "not well guarded," according to Egypt's top antiquities official, Zahi Hawass. The museum is the home of roughly 120,000 historical objects, including a famous gold funerary mask of King Tut.

 To protect the nation’s treasures, a number of citizens and researches formed a human chain to protect the remainder of the collection from being damaged. However, reports of how protestors are protecting the nation’s museums are contradictory.

The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Shea wrote:

It was inspiring to read that students and ordinary citizens had linked arms to protect the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, and had also played a role in preventing the looting of the Library of Alexandria. But the situation seems precarious, and some reports are contradictory.

Seven days since nationwide protests erupted across Egypt, the nation’s political future is still unclear. Although Mubarak has appointed his first Vice President, Gen. Omar Suleiman, and dissolved his old cabinet, revelers across Egypt are looking to his resignation as reason to stop demonstrating.

As the protests continue, fear of additional looting at other archeological sites across the country has prompted the Egyptian military to deploy troops to protect the Pyramids of Giza, the temple city of Luxor and other key archaeological monuments.

Nancy Thomas, Deputy Director of Art Administration and Collections, said the severity of the damages to the Egyptian Museum's collection is still uncertain.

"It appears from photographs that some works from the tomb of Tutankhamun have been attacked, but may be repairable," Thomas said. "Two mummies have also been damaged, but will be the subject of conservation efforts. Certainly these attacks are a painful and urgent reminder of the fragility of the world’s ancient cultures."

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