The Swiss Antikenmuseum Basel has agreed to return an antiquity stolen from a tomb at Saqqara to Egypt. Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities will send representatives to the mentioned museum to receive the piece and bring it home. The artifact is a stone cluster with the depiction of a man with a wig. It dates to the Middle Kingdom. Egypt's Foreign Ministry received a notification from the Egyptian Embassy in Switzerland on Wednesday that the museum approved to return the item. Ambassador Menha Bakhoom, the spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry, confirmed that restoring the ancient artifact came as a result of efforts exerted by many Egyptian institutions, including Egypt's embassy in Mexico, the Public Prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Antiquities. Bakhom clarified that the Foreign Ministry's Cultural Relations sector received an Egyptian piece of antiquities from the Mexican authorities, in a response to Egypt's demand after controlling the piece, coming from Switzerland, in the customs management in Mexico. Bakhoom confirmed that the Foreign Ministry is keen to restore all the stolen antiquities to protect all Egyptian archeological sites, depending on an international agreement, signed in 1970, which criminalizing and preventing illegal importing, exporting or transferring the cultural properties.
