Egypt experts ask European museums to return ancient artifacts

Cairo, November 8 - A new campaign has been launched in Egypt calling on European museums to return a number of ancient artifacts stolen during the period of European colonialism, Arab News reports. The initiative comes shortly after the opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum.

The calls also follow the decision of Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who, after a summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday, pledged to return to Egypt a 3,500-year-old stone head from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III.

According to an investigation by Dutch and Spanish police, the statue was stolen during the protests during the so-called Arab Spring in 2011-2012. Dutch media reported that it appeared at the Maastricht trade fair in 2022. "Based on an anonymous tip-off about the illegal origin of the object, the trader decided to voluntarily hand it over," Dutch authorities said in a statement.

Renowned Egyptian Egyptologist Zahi Hawass has been trying to pressure foreign governments to return his cultural heritage to his homeland since 2010. Among the most famous requested artifacts are the Rosetta Stone, now on display at the British Museum in London, the bust of Queen Nefertiti housed in Berlin's Neue Museum, and the stone zodiac from the temple of Dendera, which is in the Louvre in Paris.

"In the past, Western leaders told us that our museums did not meet the necessary standards. Today, we have more than twenty-two museums with state-of-the-art technology, some of which are even more advanced than those in America or Europe," Hawass was quoted as saying by The Times.

Monica Hanna, dean of the Egyptian Arab Academy of Science and Technology, founded the Repatriate Rashid campaign, which seeks to return 18 artifacts taken from Egypt when the Rosetta Stone was exported in 1801.

"We are not asking for the return of all Egyptian monuments abroad. We only want those that are of fundamental historical importance to our country," Hanna explained.

She also says that Western museums are no longer safe enough. "What about the recent theft at the Louvre, the theft of 2,000 objects from the British Museum last year, or the attacks by environmental activists who doused Egyptian artifacts with oil in Germany?" Hanna asked.

Egypt banned the export of all historical objects in 1983, yet illegal excavations and the black market trade in artifacts are still common due to high demand and prices on the international market.

WT.24