Egypt asks US museum to return gold mummy mask

Middle East Times ^ | February 24, 2006

[nickcarraway]

CAIRO -- Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Thursday that it has asked a US museum to return a Pharaoh's golden mask, which it said had disappeared from a storage area in Cairo's Egyptian Museum.

It asked the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri to return the mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, which it said dated to the XIX dynasty and had been spotted by an Egyptologist in a recent tour of the Missouri museum collection.

The mummy mask "was discovered by Egyptian archaeologist Mohammed Zakaria Ghoneim in 1952 and was placed in the museum's storage area in 1959", said a statement by Zahi Hawass, the Council's secretary-general.

The Council asked Egypt's prosecutor general to follow up on the matter with US authorities.

Hawass added that several works of art had been lost after being placed years ago in the museum's disorderly storage area.

The US museum bought the mask in 1998 for $500,000 from an antiquities company called Phoenix Ancient Art run by two Lebanese brothers, Hisham and Ali Abutam.

Another Egyptian archaeological official had last week asked a Swiss museum to return the left eye of the statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that it said had been stolen from a temple in Luxor, south of Cairo.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[Gator101]

Now I assume Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities would offer to pay a "finders fee" of, oh say, at least $500,000 - seeing as how their museum misplaced it in the first place...right?

[politicket]

Egypt asks US museum to return gold mummy mask

Figures! Egypt is so politically correct. They have all of this concern for the mummy, and yet the daddy gets left out of the picture COMPLETELY!

[boomop1]

all you mask belong to US

[Billthedrill]

Dang it, we stoled it fair and square.

(Walks off muttering...)

[Constitution Day]

The mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer dates from the 19th dynasty (1307-1196 BC).
It is made of painted and gilded plaster-coated linen over wood with inset glass eyes

[untrained skeptic]

Now I assume Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities would offer to pay a "finders fee" of, oh say, at least $500,000 - seeing as how their museum misplaced it in the first place...right?

You don't misplace such things. It sounds more like they didn't have good enough security and they were stolen.

Authorities are going to have a bit of work to do to determine if they were really stolen or legally sold, and which buyers should have known the items were stolen if they were stolen.

[mewzilla]

If this, www.phoenixancientart.ch, is the same company, it looks legit.

[bwteim]

"**disappeared** from a storage area in Cairo's Egyptian Museum."

This is tip of the iceberg. Curators are now falling all over themselves to make sure they have proper provenance on their own items.
Years ago, countries like Egypt or Italy that should have been guarding their own relics were probably looking the other way and/or were working with smugglers. Now they want to be seen as protectors of their culture. I am surprised these whiners have not turned to 'mother' UN yet for help.

[massgopguy]

Don't forget the curse!

[blam]

Tell them we'll return it if Zahi Hawass will send SunkenCiv a 36" X 36" autographed poster of himself.

[ScreamingFist]

Cairo's Egyptian Museum

Unless something has changed drastically in the last 10 years, Cairo's Museum was a crap hole. Artifacts tossed in corners, covered with dust. Piles of uncatalogued antiquities, corrupt guards ($10 dollars to see the "good stuff" in the off limit rooms). What a dump. No doubt quite a good racket for selling than asking for their own artifacts to be returned.

[WoofDog123]

"Hawass added that several works of art had been lost after being placed years ago in the museum's disorderly storage area."

meaning stolen and resold by employees.

[2001convSVT]

You have a point. I learned recently that no valve was place upon Egyptian antiquity until Napoleon took control of the country in the early 1800's. Up until westerner archaeologist told the native Egyptian that these relics were valuable and offered money for them the Egyptians treated them like garbage.

The only reason the Egyptians want all the ancient Egyptian stuff back now is to extort money from westerns to view/study the stuff.

[bwteim]

I forgot the curse!
cursing to self

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is typical of a country where no one owns anything.

[bwteim]

It's not just the Egyptians.

[saganite]