Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced last week that it had received 36 artifacts looted from the country and later recovered by U.S. authorities.
The institution said the collection would be housed in the Egyptian Museum, without specifying whether it would be Cairo’s older museum or the dazzling new Grand Egyptian Museum in nearby Giza, which finally opened to grand opening earlier this month after two decades of construction and $1 billion in development costs.
The artifacts recovered actually consist of three collections: a group of 11 artifacts turned over in May by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose antiquities trafficking unit has become the premier office for investigating such crimes; 25 rare Coptic and Syriac manuscripts turned over by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and a third group recently turned over by Bragg’s office that includes a polychrome plaster panel dating to Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, or about 1500 B.C.
Nevine El-Aref, media adviser to the ministry, said cbs news Last week, the Egyptian government renewed its efforts to recover all illegally smuggled antiquities, monitoring networks for evidence of stolen works and then working with local authorities to recover them.
“Any artifact that is part of Egypt’s heritage is important. Even if it is a small stone, it is important to bring it back to Egypt where it belongs,” El-Aref told the broadcaster. “It is very important for Egypt to protect its archaeological heritage and history and pass them on to the next generation.”
Check out the recently restored pieces below.
