Fifty artefacts will be travelling with the Egyptian football team to the World Cup in Russia next year. "The sector received a request from the Russian embassy to hold an exhibition during the World Cup," said Elham Salah, head of the Museums Department at the Ministry of Antiquities. She added that a list of terms and conditions for the establishment of the archaeological exhibition was sent. The list includes the insurance coverage value and the transfer regulations for the artefacts during the exhibition period. The World Cup will be held in 11 Russian cities from 14 June to 15 July 2018. The Egyptian team will participate in the 2018 World Cup in Russia after their absence from the competition since 1990. The Ministry of Antiquities has decided to send 50 artefacts from different eras, without specifying the duration of the exhibition in Russia. The value of insurance coverage for those artefacts in each exhibition ranges from €10,000-1.2m, according to each piece and its size. The cost of repair and restoration of all damage to the artwork would borne by the borrowing state. The ministry provided an international guarantee as an answer to the government's pledge to protect Egyptian antiquities travelling abroad, and a bank guarantee with a financial rental value calculated according to the number of shares participating in each fair and its insurance value. "I did not know about an archaeological exhibition in Russia during the World Cup," said the Head of the Tourism Development Authority Hisham El-Demery. However, he added that the establishment of archaeological exhibitions abroad will promote cultural tourism and provide an opportunity to know about Egyptian civilisation, especially for the segment of tourists who have no knowledge of this or are not ready to travel. Last October, Daily News Egypt reported that the Ministry of Antiquities plans to organise a temporary exhibition at a museum in the Russian capital Moscow to take advantage of the World Cup to promote tourism and Egyptian antiquities during the World Cup. Russian tourism to Egypt has been hit since the aircraft incident at the end of October 2015. The peak of the Russian tourist influx to Egypt was in 2014, with the number of tourists reaching 3.1 million, while it fell to 1.8 million in 2015 due to the suspension of Russian flights to Egypt. Recently, it was agreed to resume Russian flights from Moscow to Cairo starting next February and resuming flights to Sharm El-Sheikh will begin in April 2018.
