Stolen 2,600-Year-Old Sarcophagus Returns to Egypt
April 22, 2015 - A six-year
investigation by the United States into antiquities smuggling has
resulted in the recovery of a cache of stolen Egyptian artifacts. The
recovered objects include a 2,600-year-old sarcophagus
and a series of finely carved limestone reliefs that had been ripped from an Egyptian temple. Officials from Homeland Security Investigations/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (HSI/ICE) returned the artifacts to the Egyptian government in a formal repatriation ceremony held at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The National Geographic Society assisted with investigations into the antiquities smuggling in hopes of protecting some of the world’s fragile cultural heritage.
Read more about the ancient artifacts heading home to Egypt.Watch a video of the 2010 repatriation of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian sarcophagus.
Transcript
FRED HIEBERT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARCHAEOLOGY FELLOW:
We’re looking at a series of artifacts that actually came
from Egypt, were stolen and recovered by U.S. customs agents in the United
States.
We have just a few artifacts that are going back to Egypt
from a major antiquities smuggling case that included artifacts from
Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Egypt. And here we got a selection of artifacts that
span some 2,000 years of antiquity.
BRENT EASTER, SPECIAL AGENT, HOMELAND SECURITY
INVESTIGATIONS:
We initiated a very large investigation and we ended up
discovering a significant transnational criminal organization that was involved
in the looting and selling of all kinds of artifacts.
There’s very minimal risk and a huge reward for these people
to commit these crimes.
MOHAMED TAWFIK, EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES:
These kinds of smuggling efforts, they’re basically
organized gangs that use the proceeds for further illicit activities including,
in some cases, terrorism.
These are part of our heritage, of our history, or our
civilization. And we feel that they’ve been smuggled out the country illegally and
we feel proud to receive them back.
I think National Geographic has been over a number of
decades a partner to Egypt in preserving antiquities, in making our history
more available. And it is normal in that
sense that National Geographic is hosting this event here.
FRED HIEBERT, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARCHAEOLOGY FELLOW:
We’ve got a couple of objects on stage.
We’ve got some wooden boat models that more than 4,000-years-old that
were used as models for the deceased soul to go to Heaven. We’ve also got some mummy sarcophagi here,
one that is 2,600-years-old and one that is about 2,000-years-old. They are all
incredible.
The point of returning them is not only just to have the
objects go back to Egypt but also to raise awareness that if we know that these
things are illegally shipped out of Egypt then we shouldn’t buy them. We should send them back.
Even though these object are very beautiful, they’re more
beautiful and more meaningful when they’re back at home.
