American Egyptologists and delegates from Interpol visited the Ministry of State for Antiquities this week to discuss ways of collaborating to protect Egypt's heritage and recoup its looted artefacts. Nevine El-Aref attended the meetings Earlier this week the minister of state for antiquities, Zahi Hawass, met two delegations: an Interpol team led by Stephan Tifaut and a group of American Egyptologists led by Deborah Lehr, director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute T George Washington University. The meetings took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) in Zamalek, where Hawass and the Interpol mission discussed several means of cooperation in the ministry's effort to recover the 1,228 objects that were reported missing from museums and archaeological sites in Egypt in the aftermath of the January Revolution. The Interpol delegation was a routine visit following an earlier UNESCO visit to inspect the state of Egyptian monuments and storehouses, many of which were broken into during or after the revolution when police presence was lax or absent. Interpol aims to help Egypt in its efforts to recoup the missing objects and to trace and question international antiquities traders. Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, the general supervisor of the minister's office, said that to help the nation to recover the artefacts according to the rules of the 1970 UNESCO convention, Interpol would publish photographs of them on the international market. Hawass praised the role played by young Egyptian demonstrators in protecting their heritage during the revolution and afterwards. He suggested that if the circumstances of 28 January, when there was chaos and a lack of policing on the streets of Cairo, had taken place elsewhere in Europe or the United States, museums there might have been looted, but in Egypt the young people had played an outstanding role in protecting the Egyptian Museum. Hawass discussed with both the Interpol and the American Egyptologists missions means of collaboration so as to protect all archeological sites and museums in Egypt, especially those that had been found vulnerable to looting. Ramadan Badri Hussein, the archaeological supervisor at the minister's office, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the meeting came within the framework of the initiative launched by American Egyptologists affiliated to several archaeological institutes and universities in the aftermath of the January Revolution to act as mediators between the Egyptian and the American governments in an attempt to help Egypt in its efforts to protect and safeguard its archaeological heritage. The American Egyptologists mission also asked the American government to take all required procedures to prohibit the entrance of any stolen Egyptian artefacts to the United States. During the meeting, Hawass reviewed with them the amount of encroachment made on archaeological sites, as well as the procedures taken by the MSA to remove such nuisances in collaboration with the Tourism and Antiquities Police and the Egyptian army. Hawass also determined several areas of cooperation where they might direct their efforts to help Egypt to protect its heritage. Among these means would be to help the MSA build more up- to-date magazines similar to the 47 galleries built over the past five years, and which played an important role in protecting Egypt's art treasures during the absence of security in the post- revolutionary period. Another means of cooperation would be to provide a suitable financial fund to develop and safeguard certain archaeological sites by building enclosure walls and providing more trained security personnel. Among these sites would be the areas of Midoum in Beni Sweif and Maria in Alexandria. Hussein said the financial fund would also assist with the establishment of a database for all the artefacts currently in storage facilities. The American Egyptologists mission suggested setting up a project to monitor every archaeological site in Egypt by providing satellite imagery of each one, which would determine and locate any illegal excavations and put a stop to them. The Egyptologists also promised to launch an international fund-raising campaign to provide more funding for sprucing up the construction work on the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation on Sira Lake at Fustat. During their stay in Cairo, the visitors will pay a visit to both the museums under construction and the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.
