Egypt retrieves three smuggled artifacts from Netherlands

Cairo, Aug 27 (IANS) The Embassy of Egypt in The Hague has received three smuggled artifacts from the Dutch authorities, and they will be sent back soon to Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Tuesday.
The artifacts, 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 a head of 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, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to the statement, Egypt has succeeded in repatriating more than 30,000 artifacts smuggled to other countries since 2014.
Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the three artifacts 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.
–IANS
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