Nevine El-Aref inspects the objectives of the newly established Archaeological Collection Administration Two months after the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) launched a new administration to document all the antiquities held in private possession, what are the results? Under the new Antiquities Law 3/2010, passed in mid-February, the SCA set up the Archaeological Collection Administration (ACA) as part of its professional echelon. The new body aims at inspecting the authenticity of all unregistered antiquities that are in the possession of members of the Egyptian public, and ensuring that they are properly documented. The law appears to be working. "It was really unexpected," Hussein Bassir, director of the ACA, admitted to Al-Ahram Weekly. He said that over the last two months the SCA had received 100 requests from people possessing historical articles and asking for their collections to be examined. Following inspection, 80 per cent of the artefacts were found to be genuine while the rest were replicas. Most of the objects were coins dating from the Greek, Roman and Islamic periods; prehistoric objects; Ottoman and Mamluk weapons; and pistols and revolvers from the collection of the Mohamed Ali family dynasty. One of the most important items the ACA mission has found within its parameters is a 1949 bronze medallion fabricated during the reign of King Farouk to commemorate the centenary of Mohamed Ali's death. The medallion has two faces; the first bears the face of Mohamed Ali while the obverse has symbols of Mohamed Ali's achievements in the military, irrigation and education fields. The medallion is 15cm in diameter and was carved by an Italian artist. Bassir told the Weekly that although the item was less than 100 years old, the SCA planned to request its restitution on account of its rarity. "The SCA will not, of course, force the medallion's owner to sell or offer it to the SCA, but it would be in return for fair compensation," he said. A collection of prehistoric grinding stones and vessels are also among the most notable items. Among the people who submitted a request to the SCA for the ACA examination was Egypt's mufti, Ali Gomaa. Bassir said that, according to the ACA report, the mufti owned a replica of the second edition of the Déscription de l'Egypte, printed in 1820 in Paris. The copy comprises 26 volumes bound in red cover. The Déscription de l'Egypte offers a comprehensive scientific description of ancient and modern Egypt and of its natural history. It was the collaborative work of about 160 civilian scholars and scientists, known popularly as the savants, who accompanied Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798 to 1801 as part of the French Revolutionary Wars, and of about 2,000 artists and technicians, including 400 engravers, who later compiled their notes into a complete work. Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Sameh Shokri, is also among those who applied for the ACA examination. The ambassador has 60 authentic objects in his possession dating from different dynasties of the ancient Egyptian periods as well as the Graeco-Roman and Islamic periods. Among them are: a collection of alabaster pots dating from the reign of King Djoser and found inside his Step Pyramid at Saqqara; a mummy; a statue of Thoth, the god of wisdom; terracotta statues of Roman deities; and Islamic coins and lamps. These objects, Bassir said, were taken out of Egypt in the early 1950s in order to be displayed as a small museum in the ambassador's residence, a 19th-century building constructed especially to host Khedive Tawfik on a planned visit to the United States. For unknown reasons, however, Tawfik's trip was cancelled and he offered the house to Egypt's US ambassador. "These items have now been restored and placed on display in special showcases at the ambassador's residence, where they act as a special ambassador of the Egyptian civilisations," Bassir told the Weekly. Other items identified by the ACA include replicas of ushabti figurines and sphinx-shaped marble statues engraved with wrong hieroglyphic texts. The SCA's legal consultant Ashraf El-Ashmawi says that to tighten security measures on the newly-documented artefacts a bar code and a photograph would be taken of every object in order to prevent any attempt to replace a genuine piece with a fake one, or vice versa. El-Ashmawi told the Weekly that the ACA measures were supplementary to the law. It was a means to put into effect Article 8 of the new law, according to which anyone who was in possession of an antiquity must inform the SCA of his or her collection within six months of March 2010. The new law requires that such persons are obliged to preserve such objects until the SCA resisters them. The SCA may also restitute, from its owners or possessors, any antiquities or architectural elements whenever the Board of Directors finds them to be of national interest and upon recommendation from the competent Permanent Committee, which makes a return to owners based on a consideration of value. El-Ashmawi pointed out that according to the article the trade, sale or commerce in antiquities held as private property would be prohibited in accordance with the provision of the law or legal articles existing in accordance with its provisions. "The owner of any antiquity may not dispose of, allow deterioration of or abandon a declared artefact without obtaining written consent from the SCA within at least 60 days, in accordance with the procedures, terms and conditions, of which a resolution from the minister of culture is issued, otherwise such an act shall be illegal," he said, quoting the law. Bassir said the ACA's activities would not stop after the completion of the documentation of all unregistered artefacts in private collectors, but would extend its work to create a database on each piece, its keeper and the place where it was stored. An inspection visit every six months is also one of the ACA duties. If the ACA inspectors find that any of the artefacts are being improperly displayed or stored with negligence, the SCA has the right to take the piece from its owner. Bassir quotes the case of an ancient Egyptian mummy found being ignominiously exhibited indecently in a bazaar. Hardly a fitting end for a member of such an enduring civilisation.
