Egypt recovers 3 smuggled artifacts from UK before sale to showroom

CAIRO – 24 June 2021: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs succeeded in cooperation with the British Museum to recover three artifacts smuggled into the United Kingdom before they get purchased by a showroom.

Two pieces belong to the Ancient Egyptian era while the third is Greek, and they were all delivered to the Egyptian ambassador to London.

In a similar context, Egypt’s Public Prosecutor Hamada al-Sawy retrieved, Wednesday 114 looted antiquities that were smuggled to France, as part of the joint investigations launched by Egypt’s Prosecution and the French judicial authorities.

The joint investigations managed to stop all attempts for selling the Egyptian smuggled antiquities.

Public Prosecutor Hamada al-Sawy arrived in Paris Tuesday in an official visit accompanied with Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri and Director of the General Administration of Recovered Antiquities.

The recovered antiquities were transferred by France’s Ministry of Interior to Egypt’s embassy in France to be examined under the supervision of the Egyptian Public Prosecution so they would be transferred back to Cairo.

In a ceremony hosted by the Egyptian embassy in France, Ambassador Alaa Yousef, praised the joint collaboration, and described it as an achievement added to the record of the Egyptian-French bilateral relations.