Egypt has taken the necessary procedures to verify the export certificate of ancient Egyptian mummified head and hand on display at the Swan Fine Arts Auction house in London.
The Egyptian authorities are working on discovering how the artefacts left the country. They are also taking all the legal procedures to stop the auction and demand its return.
The return will be take in accordance with the British concerned authorities in case it was proven that the head and hand left the country illegally.
The artefacts were taken from Egypt to London during the First World War with a British soldier who then kept it in his home under a glass dome, according to Swan Fine Arts.
The head is 2,800-years-old and has remained in the soldier’s home for a century. One of the soldier’s descendants is now putting it for sale in the auction for up to £20,000.
The Antiquities Repatriation Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities succeeded to track down and monitor the artefacts in London.
“Egypt is taking all required procedures, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and concerned authorities in the country, to examine the export certificate of the artefacts to know how it left Egypt,” said Mostafa Waziry, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
He assured that if the artefacts were proven to be smuggled, all legal procedures will be taken to stop the auction and to bring them back home.
The Supervisor General of the Antiquities Repatriation Department, Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, pointed out to how unethical to put human remains on sale as pieces of art to keep in homes, since they are “human remains to be respected and appreciated.”
