Egypt’s Ambassador to Italy receives part of Egyptian sarcophagus

CAIRO - 6 November 2020: Egypt has recovered a part of a sarcophagus from Italy after about two years.

The recovered part was looted and illegally smuggled out of Egypt and it will soon be returned back to Egypt.

The newly recovered artificial is part of a wooden coffin lid, it is the middle part of the body of a coffin wrapped with a layer of plaster. 

It is decorated with four bands, written on them hieroglyphic writing with black ink and it is dating back to the 'Late Period'. 

On Thursday, November 5, Egypt’s Ambassador to Italy Hisham Badr received the stolen artifact at headquarters of the anti-cultural property unit of the Italian gendarmerie "Carabinieri".

Supervisor General of Antiquities Repatriation Department, Shaaban Abdel-Gawad recounted that the stolen part was seized in Italy on 2018, by the relevant security authorities in the Cagliari region. 

After seizing the artifact all the needed measures were taken between the ministry of tourism and antiquities and the international cooperation office at the Egyptian attorney general's office. 

Later a request for legal aid was submitted to the Italian authorities.

It is worth mentioning that in 2018 Egypt received 195 artefacts and 21, 660 coins that were smuggled to Italy.