Stolen Egyptian artefacts handed over to consulate

The New York Sun (Bradley Hope)

A stolen4,500-year-old Egyptian relic that was to be included in a Christie's auction last year was returned to the consulate yesterday and will soon head to Egypt, officials said. The duck-shaped, alabaster vessel was last year spotted on Christie's auction list by Interpol, which notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In October, investigators obtained a seizure warrant and Christie's turned it over.

The consul general of Egypt to New York, Sherif El-Kholi, received the vessel in a ceremony early yesterday. "Today our two countries send a message to those who mistakenly perceive cultural theft as a low-risk/high-return business," the acting director of the ICE New York field office, Salvatore Dalessandro, said. "National artifacts and cultural treasures are not for sale to the highest bidder."

The vessel and a similar piece were excavated in 1979 at the pyramid of Amenemhat III, the sixth ruler of Egypt's 12th dynasty. An Egyptologist with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dieter Arnold, was the archaeologist who discovered them. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.