CAIRO: Egypt has received five artifacts from the Louvre Museum in Paris as a dispute over the return of the Egyptian pieces has ended, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. The French president presented Mubarak with one of the pieces in a ceremony during the Egyptian leader's visit to the French capital on Monday. Egypt had been demanding the Louvre return the Pharaonic pieces for months and had broken ties with the museum until it agreed to return the stolen artifacts to Egypt. The stelae are believed to be from a 3,200-year-old tomb of the cleric, Tetaki, in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor. Each item is only 6 in wide and 11.8 in high, and had been part of the Louvre's reserve collection. But Egypt's Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass had led a campaign against the museum that culminated in the cutting of ties with the museum in October. Hawass and the SCA had argued the pieces were stolen from Egypt, but French officials and the museum have maintained they were taken in good faith from the country. The SCA had argued the Louvre bought the fragments despite knowing they were stolen in the 1980s. Sarkozy said on Monday that doubts about the fragments only emerged in November. “France is particularly committed to fighting the illegal trafficking of works of art,” he said in a statement. Four of the fragments were purchased from the Maspero gallery in France in 2000, while the fifth was acquired at auction in Paris in 2003. Hawass has been forming an international campaign to have Egyptian artifacts returned to Egypt. He is expected to meet with German officials later this month to discuss the return of the fabled Nefertiti bust, which he maintains was taken from Egypt in the early 20th century through illegal means. There is, however, much debate sparking in the archaeological community over the authenticity of the piece. The SCA also announced recently it is determined to have the Rosetta Stone, currently displayed in the British Museum, also returned to the country. **writing by Joseph Mayton BM
