History & Heritage
5.10.2023
Italy returns four ancient relics to Egypt
Four ancient Egyptian artifacts that were illegally taken from the country have been returned from Italy, according to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The items were recovered by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities through the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which received them at the headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Egypt’s efforts to safeguard its heritage
The reclamation is part of the ongoing efforts to preserve Egypt’s heritage and civilizational history. The rare objects were handed over to the Egyptian Embassy in Rome by museum officials in Turin.
Mostafa Waziry, the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, expressed gratitude to Italian authorities for their cooperation in returning the artifacts to their rightful home. Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, supervisor of the council’s antiquities repatriation department, revealed that the four items included a wooden coffin lid decorated with hieroglyphic text, seized from the Sardinian city of Oristano in 2017.
Relics of the Greco-Roman period
Two small pieces of pottery, one depicting the upper part of a statuette of a woman, and a small vase from the Greco-Roman era, were recovered from Genoa in 2018. The fourth artifact was a 2.5-centimeter-tall djed pillar, recovered from Turin Museum, which was received by the Egyptian Embassy on November 14.
Abdel-Gawad also stressed that the four artifacts would undergo the necessary restoration work at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. In September, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities recovered 16 historical artifacts from the United States. “This is part of the top priority given by the state to the issue of recovering smuggled Egyptian antiquities and returning them to the homeland,” the ministry said.
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