You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Nevine El-Aref reports on the return of a previously unknown coffin that was only found thanks to the diligence of US customs officers Following almost 18 months of investigations and legal battles involving fraudulent possession and shipment, a 21st- Dynasty coffin of a private individual named Imesy is to come back to Egypt early in March. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni describes the coffin, which is plastered and painted with colourful religious scenes, as one of the most beautiful coffins of its type. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), says talks on the return of the coffin began in October 2008 when US customs officials at Miami International Airport detained a shipment from Spain containing the coffin, which was found to have no papers or provenance. The lack of documentation raised the concern of the American authorities, who suspected that the coffin might have left Egypt illegally. They were especially concerned because the shipment was made by Felix Cervera Correa, the owner of a private gallery, Arqueologia Clasia S.L., who had also had a family link to Fudacio Arrqueologica Clos, a private organisation that owns the Museu Egipci de Barcelona. The SCA was recently involved in negotiations with the Barcelona museum over stolen artefacts. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opened investigations and claimed that the coffin left Egypt prior to 1970. Its first public showing was in 2007, when it was exhibited in Madrid. According to a brief report, a copy of which is in the possession of Al-Ahram Weekly, the SCA has not been able to find any record of the coffin in its official registers, nor any record of its legal export abroad. Even experts specialising in coffins belonging to the 21st Dynasty had never seen this coffin before, which makes it very likely that the coffin was illegally excavated and smuggled abroad. Additional research undertaken by the SCA has discovered connections between the family of the importer and antiquities smuggling. It was ascertained that a gallery owner, Bea Felix Cervera, was arrested by the authorities more than a year ago after a police raid uncovered several Roman antiquities hidden in his gallery. Bea Felix Cervera is apparently the father of the importer, Felix Cervera Correa. The exhibition in which the Imesy coffin was displayed was at the Alexandra Irigoyen Gallery in Madrid, and was labelled "Galeria F. Cervera presents La Mirada de Egipto". One of the other pieces displayed in this exhibition is a block from the site of Kom Al-Khamsin in the south of Saqqara. Egyptologist Joseph Cervello has demonstrated that this block came from the tomb of Imep- Hor and was most probably looted from the site during a robbery in 1999. This again connects Cervera with antiquities smuggling. The ICE confiscated the coffin and informed Hawass of its action. Upon the request of Hawass, the DHS seized the coffin in February 2009. All the interested parties had 30 days from the date of the seizure notice to respond; the American buyer of the coffin had already abandoned his interest, leaving only the SCA and Cervera as potential claimants. The SCA petitioned the DHS to return the coffin to Egypt without bringing the matter before a court, but Cervera contested this. Counsel for the SCA then filed a claim before the court in November 2009. Hawass provided all the required official documents and assigned a lawyer in Miami who agreed to file the lawsuit free of charge. According to Hawass, when Cervera saw that the SCA was exerting such effort to procure the restitution of the coffin, and when Cervera failed to file a counter claim before the deadline, he withdrew from the case and the SCA allowed the coffin to be forfeited to the US authorities, with the guarantee that the authorities would repatriate it as soon as possible. Arrangements have now been made for the coffin to be handed over to Hawass on 10 March by the ICE agents responsible for the seizure at a gala ceremony in the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC.
