Egyptian authorities probe disappearance of rare 4,000-year-old limestone relief from Saqqara

Cairo — A rare 4,000-year-old limestone relief has vanished from a tomb in Egypt's famous Saqqara Necropolis , officials say, in the second major apparent theft of an antiquity in just weeks.

The ancient artwork's disappearance was reported over the weekend, just more than three weeks after officials confirmed that a golden bracelet stolen from the Egyptian Museum by a restoration worker had been sold on and then melted down .

The rare limestone relief vanished from a Fifth Dynasty tomb, dating to between 2500 and 2350 B.C., in the Saqqara Necropolis, south of Cairo, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement posted online Sunday.

The tomb belonged to a high-ranking official named Khenti Ka, who held titles including "Priest of the Goddess Maat" and "Overse