Egypt recovers 90 Pharaonic artefacts from Israel

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has recovered 90 artefacts that were displayed for sale by an auction house in Jerusalem.

Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, said that the artefacts, which belonged to the Egyptian ancient civilization, were being sold in the Eweda auction house in Occupied Jerusalem.

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The ministry of antiquities took the necessary legal steps in coordination with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and contacted the Israeli authorities to halt the sale of the pieces until the auction house could provide legal documents to prove its ownership of the items.

Israeli authorities confiscated the artefacts

The Ahram Gate website quoted Ibrahim as saying that once the Egyptian government informed the Israeli authorities about the illegality of the sale, the Israeli authorities immediately halted the sales and began an investigation. The owner of the auction hall failed to provide documents proving his ownership of the displayed items. The Israeli authorities then confiscated 90 of the 110 items after the Jerusalem auction house had already sold 20 items. Ibrahim also said that the ministry would take necessary procedures to ask Israel to open an investigation so as to track the sold artefacts and return them to Egypt.

The head of the Repatriation of Antiquities department at the ministry, Ali Ahmed, said that several ancient Egyptian items were seen displayed in Israeli auction houses and the Israeli authorities would enforce the necessary procedures in order to return the stolen items to the Egyptian authorities.