Amenhotep's eye back to Cairo from Switzerland

Egypt State Information Service

The stolen eye of Pharaonic king Amenhotep III returned to Cairo from Switzerland on Thursday 23/10/52008, accompanied by Abdel-Hamid Ma'aruf, the director general of the Egyptian antiquities registration center.

The eye, which arrived on board an EgyptAir plane, had been stolen from a statue at Luxor some 36 years ago during a fire around the Luxor temple.

Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Culture Minister Farouq Hosni singed in 2007, a memo of understanding on the protection and retrieving monuments which illegally went out of Egypt, especially as Switzerland is a signatory of UNESCO agreement on the protection of monuments. The Swiss President had said his country gave back to Egypt one thousand pieces of antiquities.