BBC documentary claims Howard Carter’s celebrated discovery of Tutankhamun in 1922 was blighted

It was the discovery of the century and led Howard Carter to become the most celebrated archaeologist in the world in 1922.

But a BBC television documentary tonight will brand him a thief, claiming he took a precious piece of jewelry after finding Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The charges against Carter come just days before the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the pharaoh’s final resting place in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

Presented by Oxford art historian Janina Ramirez, the program focuses on a precious jewel-encrusted collar that went missing shortly after it was discovered on the 19-year-old’s preserved body.

dr. Ramirez says: ‘It looks like Howard took the parts back to London in hopes of maybe reconstructing them. Instead, he gave them away to acquaintances.’

The program accuses Carter of smuggling 24 items from Egypt in violation of an export ban on one of the objects found in the boy king’s tomb.

These include parts of the collar — outlined and photographed at the time by the British-led excavation team — which were later discovered missing when the 3,000-year-old mummy was X-rayed in 1968.

The charge against Carter comes just days before the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the pharaoh’s final resting place in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings

The case of the program against Carter draws heavily on the work of French Egyptologist Marc Gabolde, who spent years investigating its disappearance.

He believes a necklace auctioned in London in 2015 contained gold beads extracted from the original collar.

Two hawks, made of gold and faience, a ceramic, which are in a museum in Kansas, America, were also part of the original design, he believes.

Presented by Oxford art historian Janina Ramirez, the program focuses on a precious jewel-encrusted collar that went missing shortly after it was discovered on the 19-year-old’s preserved body.

The program claims that Carter, who died in 1939 at age 64, sold the hawks to a collector. They were then sold to an amateur Egyptologist, who in turn sold them to the museum in 1967. And Carter may have had shape when it came to profiting from discoveries. Archaeologist Dr Monica Hanna says: ‘There are no complete innocents and there are no complete villains and I think he was a mix of both.

“Probably one time he tried to do his best to protect the sites and other times he did what was best for his own interests.”

The Tutankhamun expedition, funded by Lord Carnarvon, found more than 5,000 objects. But the current Countess of Carnarvon, author of a new book The Earl And The Pharaoh, is unconvinced by claims that Carter had been a thief.

The program claims that Carter, who died in 1939 at age 64, sold the hawks to a collector. They were then sold to an amateur Egyptologist, who in turn sold them to the museum in 1967.

“It doesn’t sound very plausible,” she says. ‘The body has been photographed and captured so carefully. There was no time Carter was alone with the body, so I think it would be very difficult for that to happen.”

l Tutankhamun’s Secrets: Raiders Of The Lost Past is on BBC2 tonight at 9pm.