A pharaonic artifact that was smuggled out of Egypt, taken to Germany, and is now in an Israeli institution must be returned, Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass announced Saturday.
The piece was discovered in Egypt in 1910, west of Khufu Pyramid. An archeologist called George Steindorff took it, along with half the pharaonic artifacts found by the expedition, for display in museums and universities.
Hawass told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the University of Leipzig in Germany gave the artifact to a committee for the victims of the Holocaust. He said this was because it was allegedly sold by a German Jewish archeologist at less than its real value to the university in 1936.
Hawass said the ministry has embarked on legal action against the Israeli institution at the International Court of Justice.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
