Egypt

The repatriation of the St Louis Mask again under discussion

NewsDay

A fight between the US government and the St Louis Art Museum over a death mask from ancient Egypt intensified last Wednesday as the government formally demanded the museum hand over the disputed object.

The 3 200-year-old mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, a 19th Dynasty noblewoman, sits on display in the basement of the museum.

The federal complaint contends the mask was stolen from Egypt before the museum obtained it for $500 000 in 1998.

The complaint, which included a request for a restraining order preventing the museum from disposing of the mask during the legal proceedings, came a month after the museum sued the government to try to block the seizure of the mask.

AllGov.com

Officials with the St. Louis Art Museum are fighting an attempt by the U.S. Attorney’s office to have an ancient mummy mask returned to Egypt, from where it was allegedly stolen decades ago.

The artifact in question is the 3,200-year-old mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, first discovered in 1952 by an Egyptian archeologist, Mohamed Zakaria Goneim, near the step pyramid of Saqarra. The Egyptian government claims the mask was stolen after it was shipped to a Cairo museum.

culturalheritagelawyer.com

Last month the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) sued the US government to claim ownnership of the ancient mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer. The US government yesterday sued to forfeit the mask.

Fearing that federal authorities could seize the Egyptian mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, SLAM filed a preemptive complaint on February 15 to have a federal district court declare that the mask is the museum’s property. US Attorney Richard Callahan responded on March 16 by initiating a lawsuit against the mummy mask.

In a complaint titled United States v. Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, Callahan petitions a Missouri federal court for forfeiture of the ancient object pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1595a. That statute permits officials to seize and forfeit items that have been illegally stolen, smuggled, or clandestinely imported into the United States. Callahan also asks that a restraining order be placed on the mask so that it remains available while the court case progresses.

- New Details Of Theft Claim In St. Louis Art Museum Ka Nefer Nefer Mask Forfeiture
Cultural Heritage Lawyer (Rick St. Hilaire) Prosecutors in the case of United States v. Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer today filed a Reply in Support of Its Motion to Reconsider. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri hopes to reverse a...

- Update On The Lady Ka-nefer-nefer (st Louis) Mask
Bizjournals (Matthew Hibbard) With photo of the mask A 3,200-year-old mummy mask located in gallery 130 inside the St. Louis Art Museum isn’t going anywhere soon. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Autry made that decision earlier this week, according...

- St Louis Mask - Us Claims Slam Lacks Legal Standing
Cultural Heritage Lawyer (Rick St Hilaire) In the latest round of papers filed in court last week, lawyers for the US Attorney’s Office in St. Louis sought to strike the St. Louis Art Museum’s legal claim in the federal lawsuit involving the mummy...

- The Curious Case Of The St Louis Art Museum
Safe Corner In a highly unusual legal maneuver by a U.S. museum seeking to retain recent acquisition, the St. Louis Museum of Art (SLAM) filed a complaint in federal district court on February 15, 2011 asking for a declaratory judgment to prevent federal...

- U.s. Demands Return Ka-nefer-nefer
The United states government has now demanded that the St, Louis Art Museum hand over the nineteenth dynasty mask known as the mask of Ka-nefer-nefer so that it may be returned back to Egypt. Battle for Ka-nefer-nefer...

Egypt