CAIRO (Updated) -Egypt's antiquities will fianally be sent back to where they belong after centuries have passed to being looted. Farouq Hosni, the Minister of Culture; Zahi Hawass, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and Thomas P.Campbell, the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced jointly Wednesday that the Metropolitan Museum of Art would acknowledge Egypt's title to 19 ancient Egyptian objects that have been in its collection since the early 20th century. All of these small-scale objects, ranging from study samples to a three-quarter-inch-high bronze dog and a sphinx bracelet-element, are attributed to Tutankhamun's tomb, which was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings. “This is a wonderful gesture on the part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” said Hawass. “For many years the Museum, and especially the Egyptian Art department, has been a strong partner in our ongoing efforts to repatriate illegally exported antiquities. Through their research, they have provided us with information that has helped us to recover a number of important objects, and last year, the Museum gave Egypt a granite fragment that joins with a shrine on display in Luxor, so that this object could be restored. Thanks to the generosity and ethical behaviour of the Met, these 19 objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun can now be reunited with the other treasures of the boy king.” Hawass continued that “the objects will now go on display with the “Tutankhamun” exhibition at Times Square, where they will stay until January, 2011. They will then travel back to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they will be shown for six months in the context of the Metropolitan Museum's renowned Egyptian collection. Upon their return to Egypt in June 2011, they will be given a special place in the Tutankhamun galleries at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and then will move, with the rest of the Tut collection, to the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza, scheduled to open in 2012.” In a related development, Australia will hand back to Egypt ten stolen antiquities soon, Cairo Ambassador to Canberra, Amr Metwali, said. The ten pieces, which were smuggled from Egypt and were being offered for public sale in Ausralia, would be repatriated soon, Ambassdor Metwalli said. Egypt is stepping up demands for the restitution of many relics including the Rosetta Stone on display in the British Museum and the bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin's Neues Museum. It also hopes to recover the zodiac of Denderah, held by the Louvre Museum in Paris, as well as the Pharaonic bust of Ankhaf that is owned by the Fine Arts Museum of Boston. Earlier in the year, Cairo hosted an international conference on recovering ancient artifacts from abroad. The participants called for unified efforts to restore their national heritage, which has been looted over the centuries.
