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US authorities return eight stolen ancient Egyptian artifacts

US authorities agreed to return eight ancient Egyptian artifacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country.



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 artifacts were seized by US Homeland Security officials at Customs in New York City after the person traveling 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.
"Enjoy an exclusive visit to the Egyptian museum the world 2nd largest museum ,most of Cairo day tours include a tour to the museum only for limited time but with our tour you can stay longer as you wish enjoying each piece of Tut Ankh Amun collection, the royal Mask, along with all the other master pieces of the ancient art collections."
 http://www.egyptraveluxe.com/cairo_half_day_tour_to_cairo_egyptian_museum.htm
 

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