Egypt’s most prominent archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, called yesterday on the descendants of the British aristocrat who found Tutankhamun’s tomb to return the remnants of his collection to Cairo.
Dr Hawass insisted that many of the objects displayed by Lord and Lady Carnarvon at Highclere Castle, in Berkshire, belong in Egypt.
Speaking opposite Lady Carnarvon on the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday morning he said that the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, the current Earl’s great-grandfather, was only “really interested in making money and taking artefacts”.
Lady Carnarvon said that the collection included “small items which are of interest mainly for the story behind them” and invited Dr Hawass to see the collection. She said that it would be staying in England, where it could continue to inspire schoolchildren and visitors.
She added that the Earl had sold his estate to fund the excavations and emphasised his passionate interest in Egyptian tradition.
Another hunt around, this time on the Highclere Castle website, and I've found a page dedicated to the book, entitled Carnarvon and Carter (by Lady Fiona Carnarvon). There's also a section focusing on the small collection held at Highclere. The latter section has photographs of items in the collection, which someone hasn't been able to resist showing in Flash, and an information frame which needs to be scrolled separately to see full details.
3 comments:
And Hawass is primarily interested in promoting himself. There is much he can do, without always being in the limelight and selling himself to the discovery network.
It's necessary a diplomatic contact: italian culture minister Francesco Rutelli is talking with american autority, to obtain from Getty Museum some important objects, illegally exported in the USA: they are coming back in Italy.
But Hawass is wrong when he wants to obtain all egyptian objects from abroad, because culture is universal and it's important that every country has something of foreigner civilizations.
So, for example, I think it's right that Da Vinci's Gioconda is in Paris. And italian people can go in France; if Leonardo's picture was in Uffizi (Florence), maybe few italians would see it....
I feel that most Egyptian artifacts should be in Egypt. However there is a right way and a wrong way to go about having them returned, and I feel in this case that the issue could have been raised more diplomatically.
There is a time and place for everything and it is not on a public interview.
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