Egypt and the Lourve at Odds Over Stolen Property

Alaa Shahine and Farah Nayeri writing for Bloombert state that Egypt has suspended cooperation the Louvre due to the failure of the museum to return stolen cultural property. The stolen property are four ancient stelae or tablets taken from Luxor in the 1980's.  In ancient Egypt, stelae are slabs of stone or wood, of many different shapes, usually bearing inscriptions, reliefs or paintings. The article states the items are fragments of a mosaic or mural from the tomb of an Egyptian prince. The French claim to have come across the property legally and therefore refuses the return. Further discussions are schedule and the property might eventually find its way back to Egypt.

The article states

described as “five fresco fragments” from the tomb of an Egyptian prince.

The fragments of mural painting were “acquired in good faith” by the Louvre in 2000 and 2003, the e-mailed statement said. Only in November 2008, when archaeologists discovered the tomb where they came from, did “serious doubts” emerge on the “legality” of their removal from Egypt, the ministry said.

The National Scientific Commission for the Museum Collections of France will meet on Oct. 9 to discuss the provenance of the frescoes, the ministry said, and if it agrees, the items will be returned to the Egyptian authorities.

Zahi Hawass, the head of the antiquities council, has been on a campaign since 2002 to recover Egyptian antiquities located abroad, including the bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin’s Neues Museum, which opens next week, and the Rosetta stone at the British Museum in London.

The stelae “were stolen from the tomb of one of the notables” in Luxor, the antiquities body earlier quoted Hawass as saying. Christiane Ziegler, the former director of the Louvre’s Egyptian department, acquired the items last year, according to the statement. She won’t be allowed to give a scheduled lecture in Egypt, it added.

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