U.S. authorities returns looted sarcophagus to Egypt

As of two January, the U.S. authorities has returned a looted wood sarcophagus to its rightful residence in Egypt. The Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace decided the coffin had been trafficked fifteen years in the past from the Abu Sir Necropolis, an archeological locality on the western financial institution of the Nile River, by a “well-organized community” that smuggled the sarcophagus from Cairo to Germany en path to the USA. Earlier than its return, the sarcophagus was even displayed on the Houston Museum of Pure Sciences. Mostafa Waziri, an official at Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, recognized the item as a relic of the Late Dynastic Interval, probably belonging to an historical priest named Ankhenmaat.

This newest repatriation effort is a part of a continued marketing campaign by the Egyptian authorities to acquire looted artefacts in circulation world wide. In 2021, Egyptian authorities secured greater than 5,000 stolen antiquities from everywhere in the globe.