Left: the fragment is part of a group of statues depicting King Ramesses II. – Right: a statue of Ramsess in the Luxor Temple — © Federal Office of Culture Switzerland
Egypt
A statue of King Ramses II has returned to his homeland. The Egyptian statue was stolen more than thirty years ago and smuggled to Switzerland.
Egypt has successfully reclaimed a 3,400-year-old fragment of a statue of King Ramesses II. The statue was stolen more than 30 years ago from the Ramesses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in southern Egypt and smuggled to Switzerland, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Egyptian authorities discovered the artifact when it was put up for sale at an exhibition in London in 2013. According to the Ministry of Antiquities, it crossed several other countries before reaching Switzerland.
The exact date of the theft is not known, but the statue is estimated to have been stolen in the late 1980s or early 1990s, said Shaaban Abdel Gawad, head of antiquities repatriation in Egypt. “This head is part of a group of statues depicting King Ramesses II seated next to a number of Egyptian deities,” according to Gawad. The statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but is not on display. The artifact will be restored, the ministry said.
Isis
Switzerland handed over the statue to the Egyptian embassy in Bern in July last year, but it has only now been flown to Egypt via EgyptAir. In 2010, Egypt and Switzerland signed an agreement to combat the illegal trade in antiquities and facilitate their return. A smuggled ancient Egyptian statue of the goddess Isis was also returned earlier.
© AFP