At least 17 priceless treasures stolen from Egyptian Museum of Cairo

At least 17 artifacts from the Egyptian Museum of Cairo are missing following a break-in, the country's minister of antiquities said Sunday.

The missing objects include a gilded wood statue of King Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess; parts of a gilded wood statue of Tutankhamun harpooning; a limestone statue of Akhenaten; a statue of Nefertiti making offerings; a sandstone head of an Amarna princess; a stone statuette of a scribe from Amarna; 11 wooden shabti statuettes of Yuya; and a heart scarab of Yuya.

The discovery that the ancient treasures are missing came after museum staff took an inventory, Zahi Hawass said in a statement, according to CNN.

The news came after a full inventory of the museum was carried out following 18 days of demonstrations which engulfed the area around the building, on the edge of Tahrir Square.

At the beginning of the uprising, on January 28, looters climbed a fire escape to the museum roof and lowered themselves on ropes from a glass pane ceiling onto the top floor.

Around 70 objects were damaged, but until the minister's announcement it was not known whether anything was missing, Sky News reports.