Mummy body parts to be returned to Egypt

A skull and two dismembered hands belonging to three ancient mummies are to be returned to Egypt from the United States after being removed from the country more than 90 years ago. Stolen from an illegal excavation in the Valley of the Kings outside Luxor in 1927, the remains were seized by US federal investigators who intercepted a deal to sell the body parts on to an antique collector in Manhattan, New York.

According to Ahram Online, Shaaban Abdel Gawad, the Supervisor-General of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities’ Repatriation Department, has said the remains are in good condition and have been authenticated as genuine. They were expected to be handed over to the Egyptian Embassy in New York on 8 January in a special ceremony.

The move comes following increased efforts to put an end to the global trade in Egyptian antiquities, with Egypt and the US signing a bilateral agreement to stop the import of smuggled artefacts in December 2016. According to National Geographic, the initiative represented the first bilateral cultural property agreement between the US and a nation in the Middle East or North Africa.

Read:3,500-year-old mummy found in Egypt

Egyptian antiquities have long been kept overseas, with the British Museum in London boasting the largest collection of such artefacts outside Egypt. Controversy surrounding these artefacts, many of which were acquired during the era of British colonialism in the Middle East, reached its peak in 2010 following demands by Egypt to return the myriad of historical pieces held in international museums.

Egypt has recently taken steps to boost its failing tourism industry, announcing plans to open the Grand Egyptian Museum by mid-2018. Currently under construction, Egypt Independent noted that the new museum will be one of the most important in Egypt, “housing more than 100,000 artefacts from all pharaonic periods.” The museum forms part of a wider bid by the Antiquities Minister to invest in reopening 20 museums across a number of governorates.

Tourism figures in Egypt have plummeted in recent years, particularly following a 2015 incident in which a Russian plane carrying 224 passengers crashed in the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian Authority for Tourism Development has recently announced plans to rebuild the flow of Russian tourists, with Egypt Today reporting that the plan will include a PR campaign and an invitation for a number of “well known figures” to visit Egypt.