Egypt retrieves stolen piece of King Ramses II statue from Switzerland

CAIRO – 21 April 2024: Egypt has successfully recovered a remarkable 3,400-year-old fragment of a statue of King Ramses II, which had been stolen from the ancient site of Abydos and smuggled to Switzerland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.

Thanks to close coordination between the Egyptian Embassy in Bern and the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC), the artifact has been safely returned to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities through an EgyptAir flight.

This feat underscores Egypt's unwavering commitment to safeguarding its rich historical heritage and cultural treasures, including the retrieval of pilfered Egyptian artifacts.

The fruitful collaboration between Egypt and the FOC has yielded numerous ancient Egyptian relics finding their way to the embassy in Bern since August 2021.

In a notable previous instance, the Egyptian embassy in Switzerland successfully recovered a smuggled ancient Egyptian statue depicting the goddess Isis cradling Horus the Child.

Additionally, a captivating assortment of ancient artifacts, including a segment of an alabaster statue of a woman, a stone sphinx statue, and a cylindrical alabaster vase, has been repatriated from the FOC since 2021.

Egypt and Switzerland inked an agreement in 2010 to combat illegal trafficking of antiquities and facilitate their return to their rightful homeland once discovered.