Egypt has retrieved a pharaonic statue from France, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said on Friday, pointing out that the piece was brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The statue dates back to the Sixth Dynasty, the minister said, but mentioned no further details about the piece.
Aly Ahmed, who heads the ministry’s department of repatriated artifacts, said he he was handed the statue at the Egyptian embassy in Paris.
Damaty added that an exhibition gathering all artifacts retrieved by the ministry over the past several months will be organized soon.
In London, the Egyptian embassy also retrieved a limestone mural dating back to the 19th Dynasty, saying that the piece had left Egypt illegally from Assiut in 1970. It revealed that the piece was voluntarily handed over by “a Pharaoh civilization fan” who had obtained it from an antiquities dealer.
The antiquities ministry said the piece retrieved in London features gods Anobis and Hathour beside Pharaoh Seti I.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
