Saturday, June 09, 2007

Repatriating Egyptian antiquities

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7622
"In 2003 Hawass set up The Department for Retrieving Stolen Artifacts to trace stolen artifacts. Head of the department Ibrahim Adel Meguid, said the department was able to return about 5,000 monuments from different countries since its establishment, including the mummy of King Ramses, two Egyptian masks and the status of King Amenhotob.
He said that the latest monuments returned to Egypt are the remnants of hair, linen bandages and resin used in the mummification of the 19th dynasty king Ramses, after 30 years of being in France. Two alabaster duck-shaped food boxes from Dahshur were also returned . . . . Abdel Meguid said that the department tries to track down stolen documented artifacts and investigates if they are offered for sale on the international market through the various auctions on the internet. 'There are two main auctions taking place twice a year. We monitor them to know if they are selling any of our stolen artifacts by examining their description in the catalogs,' said Abdel Meguid.
If a stolen piece is found in any of the auctions, the SCA informs the embassy of the country where the monument is being offered and demands its return through either diplomatic or legal means."
See the above page for the full story. As always with the Daily Star, this is much easier to view in Internet Explorer. It does some very strange things in Firefox.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Carlos, in Atlanta, bought the "Ramses" mummy with the intention of returning it to Egypt if proven to be authentic. Neither Egypt or Hawass or any of his departments had anything to do with the return, except to go get it!