The Netherlands will return a 3,500-year-old bust of a pharaoh to Egypt, the Dutch Prime Minister announced on Sunday, shortly after attending the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.
Prime Minister Dick Schauf told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that the Netherlands will return the ancient sculpture depicting a high-ranking official from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC), according to a statement from the Dutch government. The artwork was discovered for sale at an art fair in 2022 and was later seized by Dutch authorities, who received an anonymous tip that the artwork had been stolen from Egypt.
The art fair “voluntarily abandoned the sculpture” after investigators “discovered that the head had been obtained through robbery and illegally exported,” the statement said.
The bust will be handed over to the Egyptian ambassador to the Netherlands at the end of this year, making it the first artifact to return to Egypt since the long-awaited opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM).
cbs news Dozens of foreign leaders and dignitaries reportedly attended Saturday’s opening of the new $1 billion museum, which has taken nearly 25 years to build and now ranks among the world’s largest. The 968,000-square-foot building houses collections spanning approximately 7,000 years of history; an 80,000-square-foot gallery is dedicated to displaying all 5,600 grave objects from King Tut’s tomb. Other highlights include a large atrium containing an 11-foot-tall statue of Ramses II, and a grand staircase lined with statues and objects from various Egyptian dynasties.
“This is a great day for Egypt and humanity. This is Egypt’s gift to the world. This is a dream come true, after so many years, GEM is finally officially open,” Nevine El-Aref, media adviser to the minister of tourism and antiquities, told reporters cbs news.
