Egypt retrieved two smuggled artefacts dating back to the Greek and Roman eras from Italy amid ongoing efforts to recover stolen artefacts from abroad, a foreign ministry statement read on Thursday. Egypt's Ambassador in Rome Hisham Badr received the two artefacts from the cultural property crimes unit of the Italian Carabinieri police, the statement continued. The artefacts are a pottery work of a woman's upper body and a small vase, the statement reported, adding that the two artefacts were seized in Genoa by the Italian authorities. Earlier this year, Egypt retrieved a collection of 5,000 artefacts that had been illegally smuggled from the Museum of the Bible in Washington. Egypt has been working to repatriate thousands of its artefacts, which were mostly smuggled out of the country following illegal excavations. It has successfully repatriated 5,694 artefacts and 21,660 coins from Italy, the Czech Republic, the US, Sharjah, Kuwait, France, Cyprus, Britain, and Germany in the past two years, according to an official from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The artefacts-rich country has pushed to toughen penalties for smuggling artefacts. Last year, parliament approved the addition of a new article to the existing law on the protection of antiquities, stipulating that those who are found in possession of artefacts or who sell antiquities abroad without official documentation will be punished by imprisonment and a fine of between EGP 1 million and EGP 10 million.
