Today, upon his arrival from the United States, Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim announced that US authorities agreed to return eight ancient Egyptian artefacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country.
The objects are to arrive next month. The pieces include the upper part of a painted anthropoid wooden sarcophagus from the Third Intermediate period depicting a face of a woman wearing a wig decorated with coloured flowers.
Two linen mummy wrappings covered with plaster and bearing paintings showing winged amulets pushing the sun disc are also among the artefacts.
Hieroglyphic text showing the name and titles of the deceased are also found on the plaster cover.
The third piece is a cartonage painted mummy mask from the Third Intermediate period while the fourth and fifth items are Middle Kingdom wooden boats.
The other three items are limestone statues from the Third Intermediate period and the Late Ancient Egyptian period.
Ibrahim told Ahram Online that the artefacts were seized by US Homeland Security officials at Customs in New York City after the person travelling with the pieces was not able to prove legal possession.
He added that because the artifacts belong to different ancient Egyptian periods, they would have been stolen in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, when a lack of security overwhelmed the country leaving its heritage vulnerable to theft.
Read the news on Ahram Online
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