CAIRO, Nov 7 (NNN-MENA) – Egypt has recovered 36 ancient artefacts from the United States, that had been smuggled out of the country, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement, yesterday.
The artiefacts were retrieved in three groups, the first of which, comprising 11 items, was handed over by the New York Attorney General’s Office. It includes a Roman-era mummy mask of a young man, a limestone funerary stela from the same period, and a vessel in the shape of ancient deity Bes.
The second group was voluntarily delivered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the Egyptian Consulate in New York and consists of 24 rare manuscripts written in Coptic and Syriac.
The third is a coloured plaster relief from Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, which was seized by the New York Attorney General’s Office, after it was proven to have been taken out of Egypt illegally, the statement said.
Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister, Sherif Fathy, said, the return of these antiquities confirms “the Egyptian state’s unwavering commitment to protecting its heritage, preserving its cultural property, and recovering its antiquities that were taken out illegally.”
The repatriation was carried out through joint efforts of the ministry’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other relevant Egyptian bodies.
A committee from the SCA has received the retrieved artefacts, to be deposited in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where they will be restored and displayed, the statement added.
Over the past few years, Egypt has recovered thousands of smuggled antiquities from different countries, including the United States, Canada, Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Türkiye, Kuwait, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, through close cooperation with foreign authorities and museums.
A former official statement said that, Egypt has succeeded in repatriating more than 30,000 smuggled artefacts from other countries since 2014.– NNN-MENA
