Egypt announced on Monday, 2 January that they have taken back a sarcophagus lid which was stolen and displayed in an American museum.
Image credit: Justin Fox
The lid is said to be 2700 years old and the announcement was made by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, during a televised press conference on Monday.
He further explained that the artefact was secretly removed from the country and its recovery is part of ongoing efforts to ‘protect Egypt’s national heritage.’
According to reports the lid measures about 3 metres in length and 90 centimetres in width. The historic lid was part of 17 other artefacts recently recovered from the US, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa said at the news conference.
The sarcophagus lid was looted from the Abusir necropolis south of Cairo then transported to the USA, eventually appearing at Houston Museum of Natural Science in 2013.
Over the past decade, Egypt has recovered nearly 30 000 antiquities which were found to be stolen through illegitimate means.
In addition to the recovered artefacts, Egypt has unveiled more than 300 sarcophagi and 150 bronze statuettes over the past two years, some of them older than 3000 years.
They were amongst the major discoveries recently made which authorities hope will help the country’s vital tourism sector after the Covid pandemic and previous unrest.
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