The items arrived from Canberra, Australia, and were officially handed over to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities today in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates.
The recovered items date back to various periods of ancient Egyptian history. They were returned following diplomatic efforts and cooperation between Egyptian authorities and their Australian counterparts.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy hailed the repatriation as a testament to Egypt’s unwavering commitment to protecting its heritage. “This achievement reflects the close cooperation between all national institutions and our international partners in recovering artefacts that represent the essence of our civilisation,” Fathy said.
He noted that the recovery coincides with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Australia.
Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said a delegation from the SCA, led by Shaaban Abdel Gawad, head of Egypt’s Antiquities Repatriation Department, received the artefacts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Cairo. He added that the recovered objects were previously listed for sale at a well-known Australian auction house. Upon discovering that the artefacts lacked valid ownership documents, the auction house engaged with the Egyptian Embassy in Canberra to arrange their return to their homeland.
Abdel Gawad, for his part, revealed that among the recovered objects are small statues, including a ushabti figurine, a wooden hand believed to be part of a coffin, a wooden snakehead, a pottery lamp, ivory spindles, a wedjat eye amulet, and a piece of Coptic textile.
Some of the pieces were handed over directly to the Egyptian General Consulate in Sydney. These included a fragment of a stela belonging to a man named Seshn Nefertem. The stela had originally been unearthed by an Italian archaeological mission but was later broken into four parts, three of which were recovered from Switzerland in 2017. Australia’s Macquarie Museum recently returned the fourth piece after verifying its provenance.
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