Egypt secures auction pull-out
Egypt Daily Star News
A British auction house has withdrawn a Pharaonic artifact from sale after Egyptian authorities saw the item in a catalogue and said it was missing, the ministry of culture said on Wednesday.
Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said in a statement that he had asked for the 2,500-year-old carved limestone relief removed from a wall in the 26th Dynasty tomb of Mutirdis in Asasif in Luxor to be withdrawn from Bonhams' London sale, set to take place on Thursday, because it was stolen.
Hosni said the ministry had no idea the piece was missing until they saw it in the catalogue.
According to a press statement by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary General Zahi Hawass, the tomb was discovered in 1969 by the German Egyptologist Jan Assmann, who restored it between 1973 and 1974. A photograph of the inscription was published in 1977 in Assmann’s “Das Grab der Mutirdis”. The hieroglyphic inscription is written in six columns and includes a cartouche of Queen Nocratice (7th century BC) as well as different titles and the names of the tomb owner.
A spokesman for Bonhams told AFP by telephone that the lot had been withdrawn following the ministry's complaint.
Also in French, accompanied by a photograph of the disputed artefact, on Cyberpresse (with my thanks to Pierre D'Aoust for forwarding it to me). And just to be as multinational as possible, it is also covered in Spanish on the Univision website.
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