German University To Return Egyptian Relief
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The University of Tubingen in Germany has agreed to return to Egypt five fragments of a relief removed in the last century from the Temple of Pharaoh Seti I, culture minister Farouk Hosni said.
The fragments, which were cut out of the walls of the 19th dynasty (1307-1196 BC) Pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, are to be handed over next month, the minister said in a statement.
The university made its decision "voluntarily" and agreed to return the artifacts "without any conditions", said the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.
The fragments are to be restored to their original resting place at the tomb, which is currently closed to the public because of the damage.
Archaeologists say that the tomb, discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in 1817, used to be one of the most decorated in the Valley of the Kings, which also ensured that it was plundered more than any other in the area.
Many artifacts removed from the site, sometimes referred to as Belzoni's tomb, are currently on display in museums around the world, including a sarcophagus in the Sir John Soane Museum in London.
Hawass hailed the University of Tubingen's decision to return the artifacts and urged other foreign institutions with Egyptian antiquities of dubious provenance in their collections to follow suit.
He singled out the St. Louis Art Museum in the United States and said that he had asked Egypt's prosecutor general to file charges against the museum in a US court for its refusal to return the 19th dynasty mask of Ka-nefer-nefer.
"The evidence shows clearly that the mask was duly registered as property of the Egyptian government in the 1950s, and was stolen sometime during or after 1959," Hawass said.
St. Louis Art Museum said that it purchased the mask, which depicts a young woman with inlaid glass eyes and a gold-coated face, in 1998.
It said that it has yet to see solid evidence of Hawass' accusations.
Egypt has warned that it will end cooperation with foreign museums and institutions that buy stolen artifacts. |
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