Egypt retrieves looted sarcophagus lid from US
January 2, 2023
Egyptian officials celebrated on Monday the repatriation of a nearly 3000-year-old sarcophagus lid that had been illegally smuggled out of the country and displayed at a US museum.
The country's ministers of tourism and foreign affairs both announced the return of the artifact in a press conference on Monday.
The US Embassy in Cairo said the lid was restored with the support of US bodies including the US Department of Homeland Security and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Known as the "green sarcophagus," the lid stands at a height of nearly 2.94 centimeters (1.16 inches). It is made out of green-colored wood lined with golden motifs and hieroglyphs. It dates back to some 2,700 years ago and is believed to have belonged to an ancient priest named Ankhenmaat.
Mostafa Waziri, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said during the Monday press conference that only the lid was stolen, as the entire coffin weighs nearly half a ton. It is among the largest wooden sarcophagi from Ancient Egypt.
How did the artifact land in the US?
The sarcophagus lid was looted from the Abusir necropolis south of Cairo in 2008 and smuggled illegally to the US via Germany. There, it was displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The US formally announced handing it over to Egypt in September 2022, after an extended international investigation, the US Embassy in Cairo said.
"This stunning coffin was trafficked by a well-organized network that has looted countless antiquities from the region,'' The Associated Press news agency quoted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg as saying at the time. "We are pleased that this object will be returned to Egypt, where it rightfully belongs.''
The lid is bound for the Egyptian museum in central Cairo, where it will be examined, maintained and restored, Egypt's Tourism Ministry said in a Monday statement.
Egypt's smuggled artifacts
In the ceremony celebrating the lid's repatriation, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt placed a great deal of importance on the activity of returning illegally smuggled artifacts.
He said that Egyptian missions abroad worked hard to verify that all artifacts being shown abroad or sold at auction houses were legally acquired. Otherwise, the top diplomat said legal measures were taken to retrieve any illegitimately obtained artifacts.
Over the past decade, Egypt has recovered nearly 30,000 antiquities that were illegally smuggled out of the country, the French AFP news agency reported.
The country is scrambling to breathe life into its vital tourism sector, a prime source of revenue that could pump much-needed hard currency in turbulent economic times.
Tourism has sharply deteriorated in recent years, with the COVID pandemic and then Russia's war on Ukraine having had an impact on the sector in Egypt.
rmt/jcg (AFP, AP)