The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) announced on Tuesday that the Embassy of Egypt in The Hague has obtained three artifacts that were smuggled, which will soon be returned to Egypt following their receipt from the Dutch authorities.
The items, dating from the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (747-332 B.C.), include a blue porcelain ushabti statue, a section of a wooden coffin adorned with inscriptions of the goddess Isis, and a well-preserved mummy head featuring remnants of teeth and hair, as stated by the ministry in an announcement.
Egypt has successfully repatriated over 30,000 artifacts that had been smuggled to various countries since 2014, the ministry said adding that the investigations revealed that the latest artifacts’ departure from Egypt was unlawful, stemming from clandestine excavations rather than from any museum, storage facility, or archaeological location.
Mohamed Ismail Khaled, the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), reported that the three artifacts were discovered within an antique shop in the Netherlands. Subsequent investigations carried out by Dutch and Egyptian authorities revealed that these items had been unlawfully smuggled from Egypt.
The head of the SCA praised the collaboration between Egypt and the Netherlands in addressing the illegal trade of cultural property and the smuggling of antiquities, emphasizing that cultural heritage constitutes a shared legacy for all of humanity.
