Egypt thwarts attempted sale of antique statue

One of the 59 sarcophaguses excavated by the Egyptian archaeological mission, displayed during a press conference at the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt on October 3, 2020 [KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images]

Egyptian security forces on Wednesday successfully thwarted the attempted sale of a huge antique statue that was extracted from Egypt’s province of Sharqia, and subsequently transported to the country’s northeastern governorate of Ismailia.

Local officers at Ismailia’s Abu Sawyer police station told Sada El-Balad that the defendant had been communicating with someone in an attempt to: “Speed up the sale of the statue after hiding it for a long time.”

“Following extensive investigations, it was revealed that the statue was excavated from an archaeological area in Sharqia years ago, transferred to Ismailia, and buried in an agricultural area,” the officers recounted.

They noted that the statue weighed 700 tonnes, adding that the station had notified the country’s public prosecutor to take over the investigations.

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