CAIRO: Officials from 16 countries are discussing the recovery of lost or displaced historical Egyptian artifacts in a two day conference beginning Wednesday in Cairo. In December 2009 and January 2010, Egypt had announced that it was hosting an international conference on the return of “stolen†artifacts. The conference is being organized by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The SCA is a division of the Ministry of Culture that overseas the conservation, protection, and regulation of antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt. The SCA expected some 30 other countries that also seek their own historical artifacts to be returned, which were allegedly taken illegally. The SCA said the conference would cover “the protection and restitution of cultural heritage.†At the conference, participating countries include China, Greece, Cambodia, Peru and Afghanistan among others, will discuss the list of artifacts they want returned and the strategies to persuade museums overseas, mainly in Europe and the United States, to respond to their demands. They also plan to call on the United Nations cultural body, UNESCO, to revise a convention banning exports and ownership of antiquities stolen after 1970. Egypt wants to recover artifacts that it considers a part of the people, culture and history of Egypt. One of these artifacts is the historical and famous Rosetta Stone. The British Museum in London has held on to the Rosetta Stone since 1802. The Rosetta Stone was instrumental in advancing the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Napoleon’s soldiers discovered the black slab on the western bank of the Nile River in 1799. Upon Napoleon's defeat, the stone became the property of the British under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria (1801) along with other antiquities that the French had found. Despite repeated requests to return the Rosetta Stone to its original homeland, the British Museum has declined to even lend the stone to Egypt. Another artifact that Egypt is struggling to bring home is the 3,300-year-old bust of Nefetiti from the Neues Museum in Berlin. Egypt claims that the bust was obtained through deception, while Germany maintains that there was nothing underhanded in the way the bust was acquired about 100 years ago. Recently, Egyptian authorities have improved their efforts in recovering stolen artifacts, with the head of the SCA, Zahi Hawass, attracting international attention for his efforts. Last year, Egypt broke off ties with Louvre Museum, is one of the largest museums in the world in France, until France returned fragments chipped from a wall painting in an ancient Egyptian tomb. BM
