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Ahram Online
“Egypt retrieved two smuggled artefacts dating back to the Greek and Roman eras from Italy amid ongoing efforts to recover stolen artefacts from other countries”, a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs read on Thursday.
“Egyptian Ambassador to Rome Hisham Badr received the two artefacts from the cultural property crimes unit of the Italian Carabinieri police”, the statement continued.
“The artefacts are a pottery work of a woman’s upper body and a small vase”, the statement reported. The two artefacts were seized in Genoa by the Italian authorities.
Earlier this year, Egypt retrieved a collection of 5,000 artefacts, which had been illegally smuggled, from the Museum of the Bible in Washington.
Egypt has been working to repatriate thousands of its artefacts, which were mostly smuggled out of the country following illegal excavations.
“5,694 artefacts and 21,660 coins were successfully repatriated from Italy, the Czech Republic, the US, Sharjah, Kuwait, France, Cyprus, Britain, and Germany in the past two years”, according to an official from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Last year, the Egyptian parliament approved the addition of a new article to the existing law on the protection of antiquities. The article stipulates that those who are found in possession of artefacts or who sell antiquities abroad without official documentation will be punished by imprisonment and a fine of between £E1 Million and £E10 Million.
