Last Saturday, the foyer of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square was packed with journalists and photographers anxious for a glimpse of yet another batch of recovered antiquities. For three years now, the Egyptian authorities have been pursuing the retrieval of artefacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country due to lack of security in the aftermath of the 2011 Revolution. Over the last three years Egypt has managed to return 1,400 pieces that were removed from different archaeological sites around the country. At the Egyptian Museum, only 200 of those were on display in a special exhibition for three months. The artefacts were returned from several foreign countries including Belgium, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Spain, Australia, China, New Zealand and Germany. Other artefacts were seized in Egypt by the Tourism and Antiquities Police from robbers caught red-handed. The objects on display date to the ancient Egyptian, Graeco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic period and include a collection of scarabs and amulets from different ancient Egyptian ages along with clay pots, statues, limestone shrines and pieces of linen. the collection also includes statues made of glass and bronze, stelae, gilded wooden ushabti figurines and papyri. The most recently recovered objects include the 48 artefacts stolen last August from the Malawi Museum in Menya in the aftermath of the raid by Mohamed Morsi's supporters. The gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun wearing the red crown and holding a flail in his hand is also among the objects exhibited. This statue, along with another nine items, was recovered last week after three years. They were stolen on 28 January, 2011— dubbed as the “Friday of Anger”. “I am extremely pleased,” said Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim. “It is a great success.” The antiquities minister vowed to recover all the antiquities that had been illegally removed from Egypt. According to the UNESCO Convention signed in 1972, all illegally smuggled artefacts must be returned to their homeland. Ibrahim also thanked all the foreign countries involved for their cooperation to return Egypt's stolen archaeological heritage as well as highlighting the Ministry of Interior's efforts to arrest the people responsible. He also pointed out that Egypt is exerting all possible efforts in cooperation with a number of foreign countries as well as international auction houses and the Interpol to track other smuggled. Legal and archaeological experts, Ibrahim added, are reviewing all articles of antiquities law No 117 for 1983 and its amendments in 2010 in an attempt to fill all the loopholes it may contain. One such loophole is that the offence of stealing artefacts by illegal excavation remains a misdemeanour case rather than a full-on crime. A collection of six artefacts just returned from London was on display in a special corner for only one day. Egypt managed to retrieve those objects after wining a court case in London to prove they were stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country. The court also charged the British citizen who claimed possession of the objects with a fine of £12,000 and accused him of deception and fraud. The artefacts include a red granite engraving depicting a Nubian prisoner which was part of a statue base of king Amenhotep III, discovered in 2000. It also includes of a New Kingdom limestone cobra head wearing the sun disk and standing beside a Lotus flower, a Middle Kingdom bust of an as yet unidentified man wearing a long wig, a New Kingdom limestone head of a lady wearing a short wig, a limestone engraving showing a standing man with his hands on his chest and a New Kingdom painted relief in red and yellow showing a man wearing a wig.
