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Waziri inspects the carttonage mask
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The
artifacts were returned in collaboration with the Carabinieri Command for the
Protection of Cultural Heritage in Rome and the Italian Public Prosecutor at
the Court of Salerno. Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities
(SCA) Mostafa Waziri told Ahram Online that the recovered objects are dated
from Ancient Egypt to the Islamic period.
The
artifacts include 151 ushabti statuettes carved in faience, 11 pots, five cartonnage
gilded mummy masks, a wooden sarcophagus, two symbolic wooden boats of the
dead, two canopic jar lids and three porcelain tiles from the Islamic era. Waziri
also thanked Italian authorities, the Egyptian prosecutor-general, Egypt's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Egyptian Embassy in Rome for their efforts
in ensuring that the artifacts are returned.
“The
return of the artifacts was executed in an unprecedentedly short period after
Italian authorities reported the incident to Egyptian counterparts,” Waziri
said, explaining that the usual repatriation process in such cases can take
three to five years.
Waziri
said that when the incident was reported to Egypt's antiquities ministry,
Minister Khaled El-Enany formed an archaeological committee to inspect photos
of the artifacts and called for an urgent meeting of the National Committee for
Antiquities Repatriation to discuss the matter and take all the necessary
procedures to return the artifacts to Egypt.
The
committee is led by El-Enany, and its members are comprised of renowned
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, former Arab League Secretary-General Nabil
El-Arabi, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
prosecutor-general, and legal and security authorities.
In
mid-June, Waziri and Mohamed Ezzat, senior coordinator at the International
Cooperation Administration of the prosecutor-general's office, travelled to
Salerno to inspect the artifacts and confirm their authenticity.
“According to the Ministry of Antiquities'
records, the objects were not stolen from any museum or store gallery in
Egypt,” Waziri asserted, adding that the artifacts are now undergoing
restoration and will be put on display in a temporary exhibition at the
Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. Over the past two years, Egypt has succeeded in
repatriating 975 stolen artifacts from 10 countries.
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