9 smuggled artifacts restored from France

BY

-

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 - 03:03 GMT

BY

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 - 03:03 GMT

Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed on Thursday eight smuggled artifacts after being seized in a train station in Paris-Press Photo

Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed on Thursday eight smuggled artifacts after being seized in a train station in Paris-Press Photo

CAIRO – 7 June 2018: Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over eight smuggled artifacts and a wooden Pharaonic mask restored from France to the Ministry of Antiquities on Thursday.

Assistant of the Foreign Minister for Cultural Relations Hibaal Marassi said that the Egyptian Embassy in Paris contacted the French authorities to stop the sale of the artifacts and take the necessary measures to return them back to Egypt.
43117-القطع-العائدة-من-باريس-(1)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed on Thursday eight smuggled artifacts after being seized in a train station in Paris-Press Photo

In the same context, General Supervisor of the Antiquities Repatriation Department at the Ministry of Antiquities Shaaban Abdel Gawadsaid that the restored artifacts were seized from a passenger travelling to London at a train station in France in 2012. They consist of five fragments of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, two statues of cats and a human head of basalt.
47352-القطع-العائدة-من-باريس-(3)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed on Thursday eight smuggled artifacts after being seized in a train station in Paris-Press Photo

Abdel Gawad referred that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in coordination with the Ministry of Antiquities,inspected the authenticity of the artifacts and took the legal measures to prove the ownership of these artifacts; French judicial authorities confiscated the artifacts in favor of Egypt in 2014.
52145-القطع-العائدة-من-باريس-(6)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed on Thursday eight smuggled artifacts after being seized in a train station in Paris-Press Photo

Abdel Gawad stressed that the ministry followed the case in the past few years and provided French authorities with the necessary documents to end the artifacts’ recovery procedures; the judge of investigation in France issued the final decision on Egypt’s ownership of the artifacts in 2016, and handed them to the Egyptian embassy in Paris at the end of 2017.
79600-القطع-العائدة-من-باريس-(9)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed on Thursday eight smuggled artifacts after being seized in a train station in Paris-Press Photo
He further explained that the artifacts will be stored in the Egyptian museum, located in Tahrir square, to be renovated and presented later in a special exhibition.

As for the ninth piece, he revealed that it is a wooden Pharaonic mask, which was found at an auction house at the end of 2016 and was proved to be one of the artifacts stolen from the Elephantine Island Museum in Aswan in 2013.

He remarked that the Ministry of Antiquities took all the necessary procedures to stop the mask's sale;the mask was handed over to the Egyptian Embassy at the end of 2017.

Comments

0

Leave a Comment

Be Social