Egypt Recovers a New Batch of Stolen Artifacts From France

Egypt Today

01-06-2025

As part of ongoing national efforts to safeguard Egypt's heritage and ancient legacy and in line with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's directives to reclaim smuggled and stolen antiquities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed over a remarkable collection of recovered artifacts to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The retrieved items repatriated from France, date back to the Late Period and include a limestone votive coffin, a limestone statue of a man, a wooden statue of the god Anubis in jackal form, two detached wooden hands from painted coffins, three rare papyrus scrolls sealed with royal stamps, and a cylindrical container inscribed in hieroglyphics used to store scrolls.
These artifacts were successfully recovered by the Egyptian Embassy in Paris in collaboration with the French Ministry of the Interior. Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Dr. Badr Abdel Aaty, attended the handover ceremony held at the embassy in February, following the French authorities' successful interception of an attempted sale by smugglers. Egypt also took legal action, joining the case in Paris as a civil plaintiff, which resulted in the conviction of the defendants and a court-ordered compensation of €23,000 in Egypt's favor.
This marks the third such handover this month. Earlier in May, Egypt received 25 rare artifacts from U.S. authorities via its Consulate in New York, followed by the return of 20 significant pieces from Australia through Egyptian missions in Canberra and Sydney.