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Today Egypt’s Embassy in London received a limestone relief that has been stolen from Queen Hatshepsut’s temple in Al-Deir Al-Bahari in Luxor.
Shaaban Abdel Gawad, General Supervisor of Antiquities Repatriation Department at the Ministry of Antiquities announced.
He added that in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Museum the ministry of antiquities succeeded to repatriate the relief after proving its possession.
Abdel Gawad describes the recovery of the relief as “very important” because it is not only a piece that has been stolen from one of Egypt’s distinguished New Kingdom temple but it will help in the restoration work carried out by a Polish archaeological mission. It also highlights the ministry’s duty to protect Egypt’s heritage.
He explains that the relief was stolen from the temple in 1975 and illegally smuggled out of the country. It was then put on show in an auction hall in Spain and a British antiquities dealer bought it.
The relief is carved in limestone and engraved with hieroglyphic symbols.
Recently, Egypt recovered a number of stolen and illegally smuggled artifacts among them two Islamic lamps from the United Arab Emirates, a stelae from Switzerland and four objects from the United States of America.
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