CAIRO - Egypt is poised to get back four artifacts that were stolen and smuggled out of the country, a senior official said. The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the Egyptian Embassy in the UK, in co-operation with London Museum, have managed to stop the sale of the four artifacts, dating back to King Amenhotep III, SCA Secretary-General Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud said in a statement. King Amenhotep III, the ninth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, ruled Egypt from 1391 until 1353 BC. “An American collector had been trying to sell the four artifacts, taken from the base of a statue from the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III on the west bank at Luxor,” the statement added. “When an auction hall offered the four artifacts for sale, an official from London Museum interfered and confirmed they were genuine,” it added. An Egyptian, English and German team soon concluded that the antiquities were taken from the Luxor Amenhotep III Museum, when it was damaged in a fire. The artifacts are due in Cairo in a few days' time.
