The Egyptian Embassy in the Hague, Netherlands, received an ushabti statue, part of a colored coffin, and a mummy head from the Late Period, which investigations proved were taken out illegally as a result of an unauthorized excavation.
This comes as part of the state’s tireless efforts to recover antiquities smuggled abroad, a reflection of the great attention many official institutions hold in preserving Egypt’s heritage and cultural history.
The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, explained that these pieces were seized inside an antiquities shop in Netherlands where Dutch authorities, in cooperation with Egypt, conducted the necessary investigations.
This paid off in Egypt receiving the pieces and successfully returning them home.
Khaled hailed this achievement, and said it marks yet another success in Egyptian-Dutch bilateral cooperation in combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property and the smuggling of antiquities.
And the Director General of the General Administration for the Retrieval of Antiquities, Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, explained that the recovered pieces date back to the Late Period.
The pieces include a blue porcelain ushabti statue some inscriptions of the deceased’s titles, part of a wooden coffin decorated with inscriptions of the protective goddess “Isis”, and a mummy’s head in good condition with remnants of teeth and hair visible.
