A 3,000-year-old gold bracelet that disappeared from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo was stolen and melted down, Egypt's Interior Ministry says.

A restoration specialist took the artefact, which dates back to the reign of King Amenemope, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 1,000BC, from a safe at the museum nine days ago, according to the ministry.

The woman contacted a silver jeweller she knew, who sold the bracelet to a gold jeweller for $3,735 (£2,750), it said. He then sold it for $4,025 to a gold foundry worker, who had melted it down with other jewellery, it added.

The ministry said the four individuals confessed to their crimes after being arrested and that the money was seized.

The ministry added that legal action would be taken against them.

On Tuesday, Egypt's tourism and antiquities ministry announced that it had taken immediate measures after the bracelet disappeared from the Egyptian Museum's restoration laboratory, and that the case had been referred to police.

An image of the gold band adorned with spherical lapis lazuli beads had been circulated to all Egyptian airports, seaports and land border crossings as a precaution to prevent it being smuggled out of the country, it said.

Local media reported that the disappearance was detected in recent days as museum staff were preparing to ship dozens of artefacts to Rome for an exhibition.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East. It houses more than 170,000 artefacts, including Amenemope's gilded wooden funerary mask.

The bracelet's theft came weeks before the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in nearby Giza, where the famous treasures of King Tutankhamun's tomb have been transferred.