Thanks to the collaboration of several government organizations in the United States and Egypt, seven artifacts were recently repatriated to Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The objects had been smuggled from the country in separate cases and are from different time periods, according to Shaaban Abdel Gawad, director-general of the Repatriation of Antiquities Department and supervisor of the Antiquities Units in Ports. The news was first reported in Egyptian news outlet Ahram Online.
Five of the objects in question were initially smuggled out of Egypt in 2017 (two mummified fish and a falcon head from the Ptolemaic period) and 2018 (a bronze amulet of Set, the ancient Egyptian god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners; a basald scarab; and a carved face).
The other two items—a painted wooden funerary figurine and a stone head from a statue—were given to the Egyptian embassy in Washington by an unnamed American citizen who felt they should be returned to Egypt.
The repatriated objects were handed over to Ambassador Wael el-Naggar, assistant foreign minister for cultural relations, at a special ceremony during which el-Naggar reenforced Egypt’s commitment to recover smuggled cultural property in accordance with national heritage laws and agreements with other countries.
In November 2021, the U.S. and Egypt renewed a memorandum of understanding intended to enable “bilateral cooperation to disrupt the trafficking of archeological artifacts and cultural objects.”
