Egypt's stolen antiquities continue their journey home. Nevine El-Aref watches as the inscribed limestone relief used to convict an antiquities smuggler in New York was returned to Egypt this week Click to view caption Almost a month after New York antiquities dealer Frederick Schultz was sentenced to 33 months in jail and a $50,000 fine for dealing in stolen antiquities, one of four objects used in the Schultz trial made its way back to Egypt. On Sunday, Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) officials celebrated the return of the sixth dynasty relief, which was stolen from Saqqara. The 70-centimetre tall, 120-centimetre wide piece depicts an unknown Old Kingdom senior official standing with his wife, who holds a lotus flower to her nose; behind them the nobleman's son stands beside a gaggle of geese. SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass described it as "a rare and delightful scene". Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly that he regards "its successful return as a great achievement". According to Egypt's top archaeologist, the other objects found in Schultz's possession -- including a head of the New Kingdom Pharaoh Amenhotep III -- would also be returned, but that they were held up due to legal complications. "I expect the necessary clearance in the near future," said an optimistic Hawass. While in the US -- both to inaugurate a highly-publicised exhibit of Egyptian treasures and pursue the matter of stolen antiquities -- Hawass also identified ten reliefs which hail from Behbeit Al-Hagar temple in the Delta and are now on display at seven American museums. Hawass expects that within the coming three weeks, an inscribed block recently identified at Christie's auction house as having also come from the same temple, will be returned -- or as Hawass put it, "taken back to where it belongs". The list of items coming "back to where they belong" seems to be increasing by the day. Next June, Egypt expects to recover the mummy of the Pharaoh Ramses I, father of King Seti I, the founder of the 19th dynasty, from the Emery Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. "This mummy," explained Hawass, "was previously on exhibit at the Niagara Falls museum, but two years ago the Emery Museum bought it. They will also hand over a relief that was stolen at an unknown date from Seti I's burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings." The returning antiquities are the fruit of a warning by Egypt that it will sever relations with any foreign museums which knowingly display stolen antiquities. "The SCA's newly established department responsible for tracing stolen and smuggled artefacts will investigate all cases of theft in order to retrieve objects smuggled out of Egypt," Hawass said. Two Roman mummy masks, currently being restored at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, will return to Egypt next week; they were found by chance in the house of a weapons trader who was arrested by US police. Hawass added that other objects from Seti I's tomb are on display at museums in Bologna and Torino in Italy, and the Louvre in France. "Efforts will be made to retrieve these as well," he noted. Meanwhile, Italy has already agreed to return seven ushabeti statues (small wooden figures depicting the deceased), and another 35 objects currently being exhibited in a museum in the Italian provincial city of Komo.
