Rising Chinese scepticism towards Western classical history and its scholarly framework has found its latest target in ancient Egyptian treasures, adding an unexpected twist to the two countries’ long-term partnership.

From July last year until August this year, the Shanghai Museum hosted a major exhibition on ancient Egypt, marking the first collaboration between a Chinese state-run museum and the Egyptian government.

A limestone pharaonic painting has gone missing from Egypt’s famed Saqqara necropolis, becoming the latest artefact to disappear in a country known for its rich and lengthy history.

The painting was in the tomb of Khentika in the Saqqara necropolis outside Cairo, Mohamed Ismail, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Sunday. The mastaba tomb was found in the 1950s and has not been opened since 2019.

Ismail’s statement said prosecutors were investigating the circumstances of the painting’s disappearance and did not give further details.

Egyptian media reported the painting exhibited the ancient Egyptian calendar that divided the year into three seasons mirroring the Nile River’s ebb and flow. It included the flooding season, Akhet, the planting season, Proyat, and the harvest season, Shomu.

The tomb dates to the sixth dynasty of the ancient Old Kingdom - roughly from around 2700 BC to 2200 BC.

Cairo 24 news outlet reported that a British mission working in the tomb discovered the painting was missing in May.