Preparations underway to repatriate Egyptian artifacts smuggled to Switzerland: foreign ministry

CAIRO - 4 June 2022: Preparations are underway to repatriate a group of ancient artifacts that belong to the ancient Egyptian civilization from Switzerland, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday.

The smuggled artifacts have been already handed over to Egypt’s Ambassador to Switzerland Wael Gad from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in August last year, the ministry said in a statement.

The artifacts include a statue of a woman made from alabaster, a stone piece with inscriptions that represent pat of God Bes, a cover for a Canopic pot, Sphinx statue made of stone, painting with inscriptions and writings and a cylinder alabaster pot.

This comes within the framework of the priority that the Egyptian state attaches to the efforts of repatriating smuggled Egyptian artifacts smuggled abroad, the ministry said.

Earlier this year, a technical meeting was held by the director of the department concerned with the international transfer of cultural property at the Federal Office of Culture in the presence Ambassador Gad and representatives of various federal agencies.

The meeting discussed repatriating smuggled Egyptian antiquities and ways to enhance cooperation between the two sides in combating the illegal trade in antiquities.

This comes in light of the agreement signed between the two countries in 2010 regarding preventing the illegal import and transfer of antiquities and returning them to their original homeland.

The two sides discussed all available and possible ways to push forward the pace of procedures for recovering Egyptian antiquities smuggled to Switzerland and working to return any artifact proven to have left Egypt illegally.