By Akram Medhat
The Ministry of Antiquities received a short while ago, at the headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a carved stone artifact bearing the cartouche of King Amenhotep I, which was recovered from London. The piece had been displayed in the open-air museum at Karnak Temple before it was stolen and illegally smuggled out of Egypt.
For his part, Shaaban Abdel Gawad, General Supervisor of the Antiquities Repatriation Department, explained that through its continuous monitoring of the websites of international auction houses, the ministry succeeded in spotting the piece, which was on display at an auction house in London, and immediately took all the necessary measures to seize it and halt its sale until it was recovered.
Abdel Gawad pointed to the fruitful cooperation between the ministries of antiquities and foreign affairs, the efforts to recover the smuggled artifact, and the combined efforts of all the British authorities concerned and the Egyptian Embassy in London, which succeeded in halting the sale of the piece and recovering it, with the embassy receiving it last September.
