CAIRO, Aug 28 (NNN-MENA) – The Embassy of Egypt in The Hague received three smuggled artefacts from the Dutch authorities, and they will be sent back to Egypt soon, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said, yesterday.
The artefacts, which belong to the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (747-332 B.C.), are a blue porcelain ushabti statue, part of a wooden coffin, decorated with inscriptions of goddess Isis, and head of a mummy, in a good state of preservation, with remains of teeth and hair, the ministry said in a statement.
“Investigations proved that they left Egypt illegally, as a result of secret excavation, and not from any museum, warehouse, or archaeological site,” it added.
According to the statement, Egypt has succeeded in repatriating more than 30,000 artefacts smuggled to other countries since 2014.
Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said, the three artefacts were found inside an antique store in the Netherlands, and the Dutch and Egyptian authorities conducted necessary investigations that showed they were illegally smuggled from Egypt.
The SCA chief hailed the Egyptian-Dutch cooperation “in combating the illegal trafficking of cultural property and smuggling of antiquities, as cultural heritage represents a common legacy for all of humanity.”
In July, 2021, Egypt recovered from the Netherlands a smuggled 4,000-year-old statue of Old Kingdom priest, Nikaw-Ptah.– NNN-MENA
