In the following months, members of the conservation team began to die prematurely and unexpectedly: Feliks Dańczak died in April 1974, Stefan Walczy in June 1974, Kazimierz Hurlak in August 1974, and Jan Myrlak in May 1975. Other premature deaths soon followed and, in all, 10 of the 12-man team died prematurely. The global media made comparisons with the supposed curse linked to the premature deaths of those involved in the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, and rumours of a "Jagiellonian curse" began to circulate. The global notoriety of the story was boosted by the election of Archbishop Wojtyła as Pope in 1978, as his officiation at Casimir's re-interment was one of the few "background" film clips of the new Pope available to the international media.
