The blue and gold braided beard on the burial mask of famed pharaoh Tutankhamun was hastily glued back on with epoxy, damaging the relic after it was knocked during cleaning, said conservators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Three of the museum's conservators on Wednesday told reporters differing accounts of when the incident occurred last year.

One of the conservators reportedly used the epoxy to quickly re-attach the beard back on the 3,300 year old mask.