After 12 months of international negotiation and legal procedures, Egypt succeeded in returning to the homeland three stained glass Mameluk lamps stolen from the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC), Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty announced.

The minister told Ahram Online that Egypt knew about the disappearance of the lamps from the NMEC store galleries when an auction hall in London put them on sale late last year, adding that the lamps were similar to three others at the NMEC stores.

An archaeological committee inspected the three lamps in the NMEC store gallery and found that they were replicas, while those on auction were authentic.

The ministry was quick to take all legal measures to return the authentic lamps and called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take all diplomatic measures to recover them.

The lamps are expected to reach Egypt within days.

sultan hassan lamp

Ali Ahmed, the director-general of the Antiquities Repatriation Department, explains that one of the lamps belonged to Mameluk Burji Sultan Barqouq, and is now at Egypt's embassy in London. The other two, which belonged to Mameluk Sultan Hassan and Prince Aslam Al-Selehdar, are in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Al-Selehdar prince lamp