Egypt opens probe into theft of artefacts from British Museum

The Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, confirmed on Saturday that communication has been ongoing with the British Museum regarding the details of stolen pharaonic artefacts. Waziri chaired a meeting of the council in order to follow up on the theft of such artefacts from the museum in London.

The council stressed that Egypt will continue to take all necessary measures to recover any artefact proven to have left Egypt illegally, out of a desire to preserve the country’s ancient heritage. The former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities and Tourism, Dr Zahi Hawwas, warned earlier that the British Museum is not a safe place for antiquities.

According to Egypt Independent, the country has been able to recover more than 30,000 artefacts since 2014. They include the sarcophagus of the priest Nedjemankh recovered in 2019 from the Metropolitan Museum in New York; and the sarcophagus of the priest Ankh-en-Maat, also known as the “Green Coffin”, recovered earlier this year from the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.

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