Khaberni - Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty directed the Egyptian embassies to intensify their efforts to recover the Egyptian artifacts that have been smuggled or transferred illegally abroad.
This was during a meeting held by the Foreign Minister with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Cultural Affairs Administration, according to a statement issued by the ministry.
Abdel Atty said, according to the statement, "It is essential to activate the efforts aimed at recovering the artifacts that have been smuggled out of the country illegally."
He emphasized that the Egyptian diplomats should conduct official consultations with the relevant governments in the countries where the smuggled Egyptian artifacts are located, with the aim of discussing ways to return them to Egypt within a legal framework and international cooperation.
This directive comes within the framework of a broader national campaign to recover Egypt’s lost heritage, where Dr. Sherif Fathy, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, previously revealed that Egypt had succeeded in recovering about 30,000 artifacts over the past ten to twelve years after they had been smuggled out of the country through illicit means.
In a related context, Dr. Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian Minster of Antiquities and a renowned archeologist, launched in 2022 a global campaign demanding the British Museum return the Rosetta Stone and the Louvre in Paris return the Dendera Zodiac, considering them amongst the most important Egyptian artifacts still abroad.
However, these demands have not yet received an official response from the two cultural institutions.
