Egypt has managed over the past 10 years to repatriate about 30,000 ancient artifacts, illegally taken out of the country at different times, a senior official said Saturday.
“Since 2011, the Egyptian state has managed to repatriate 29,300 artifacts,” said Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, head of the repatriation department at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
“This year alone, 5,300 ancient Egyptian artifacts have been discovered at the Museum of the Bible in Washington,” he said. The same official assured that his department is monitoring “auctions and Internet sales around the world.”
All smuggled artifacts have been registered in the archives, and work on their repatriation is underway, he assured, explaining that the repatriated artifacts are being restored and will later be displayed in museums.
One of these artifacts is an ancient human skeleton discovered in Belgium, currently on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo. Recently, Egypt has embarked on a campaign to repatriate smuggled ancient artifacts.
In 1983, Cairo strengthened its legislation on the protection of objects: the export of cultural heritage objects is now punishable by law. According to the authorities, about 95% of the smuggled antiquities were unearthed by illegal archaeologists.
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