By Akram Medhat
The efforts of Egypt's ministries of antiquities and foreign affairs succeeded in proving Egypt's right to recover a gilded ancient coffin of the priest Nedjemankh dating back to the first century BC, which the Metropolitan Museum in the United States had bought from an antiquities dealer who held an export permit for the artifact issued in Egypt and dating back to 1971.
This followed investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York State, which lasted about 20 months, during which the General Administration of Repatriated Antiquities at the Ministry of Antiquities, in coordination with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, presented all the evidence and proof, leaving no room for doubt, that the alleged 1971 export permit for the piece was forged and that the Arab Republic of Egypt never issued a permit for this piece. Before 1983, the law at the time allowed permits to be issued for some artifacts to leave Egypt.
Based on the documents sent by the Ministry of Antiquities, the investigation office concluded that Egypt has the right to recover this ancient coffin, that its export permit was forged and that the Metropolitan Museum had been subjected to fraud when buying it.
For his part, the director of the Metropolitan Museum sent a letter yesterday to the Ministry of Antiquities confirming the museum's apology to the Egyptian government and people for the incident, and that the museum has already taken all measures to return the piece to its homeland, Egypt.
It is worth noting that the coffin of the priest Nedjemankh is made of gold-covered wood. It is not among the items missing from the Ministry of Antiquities' storerooms or museums, and it is a precious piece that will be an addition to Egyptian museums.
On the other hand, Dr. Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Antiquities, decided that the coffin will be displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir as soon as it returns, until it is later displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum when it opens in 2020.
The return of this magnificent coffin, which left illegally years ago, represents a strong victory for the Repatriated Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which spare no effort to recover any artifact that left Egypt by any illegal means, even long ago.
It is worth noting that this coffin is the artifact Dr. Khaled El-Enany referred to several months ago at a meeting of the Culture, Media and Antiquities Committee of the House of Representatives, as well as on the sidelines of the announcement of an archaeological discovery in Saqqara at the end of 2018, when he said there was an attempt to recover a precious artifact allegedly taken out of Egypt in 1971.
The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities praised the position of all the concerned authorities in the United States that recognized Egypt's right to return the artifact to its homeland, led by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York State and the management of the Metropolitan Museum.
