Egypt trounces infamous trafficking network to recover 25 rare antiquities
Egypt is set to reclaim 25 stolen rare antiques following a three-year recovery campaign involving the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Egypt's consulate in New York, and US law enforcement authorities.
Egypt recovered 25 rare antiques as part of a three-year campaign involving international law enforcement.
These artifacts, spanning millennia, include items such as a gilt wooden coffin, Greco-Roman corpse image, and Ptolemaic gold coin.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has returned over $6.5 million worth of goods to Egypt since 2022.
These artifacts, which span millennia of Egyptian civilization, were delivered to Egyptian officials in New York in early May 2024.
Earlier in the month, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg stated that eleven antiques altogether valued at $1.4 million had been restituted to Egyptian officials.
The Manhattan DA's office has returned 27 goods totaling over $6.5 million to the Egyptian government since 2022.
Currently, among the 25 objects recovered is a gilt wooden coffin from around 332-275 BCE. After changing hands several times, it was taken from Manhattan's Merrin Gallery in 2023.
The collection also contains a Greco-Roman corpse image from Fayoum, temple remnants thought to be associated to Queen Hatshepsut, miniature ivory and stone sculptures, a granite foot piece from the Ramessid dynasty, and finely carved jewelry reaching back nearly 2,400 years.
The collection also includes elaborately created jewelry from roughly 2,400 years ago, a granite foot part from the Ramessid dynasty, Egypt's zenith of power, and miniature ivory and stone sculptures.
In addition, a unique gold coin going back more than two millennia to the time of Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great's generals and the founder of ancient Egypt's final royal dynasty, is set to be returned.
Recent loss of Egyptian artifacts
Amid the chaos of the 2011 revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, several cultural assets vanished.
Thousands of priceless artifacts were taken during the widespread looting of museums and archeological sites, and many eventually turned up in private collections or on the international black market.
Some of Egypt's stolen artifcats as earlier reported by The Art Newspaper, were part of a bigger investigation into the Dib-Simonian trafficking network, which includes high-profile persons like as former Musée du Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez.
The network enabled the sale of plundered cultural treasures to organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The ring's leader, Serop Simonian, was arrested in Germany and will be transferred to France in 2023.
'Egypt has an incredibly rich cultural history that we will not allow to be diminished by selfish looters and traffickers.
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