The ancient Egyptian antique was taken from the Karnak Open Air Museum in Luxor, Egypt, in 1988. But following a 30-year search for the section of tablet – engraved with the royal symbol of King Amenhotep I, who ruled between 1514 and 1493 BCE – the ministry announced the priceless artefact had been returned to the country. It is not clear how or when the relic was originally smuggled out of the country.
The ancient tablet was removed from sale and delivered to the London embassy in September 2018, before the ministry officially announced its return to Egypt on January 8.
Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, director of repatriation at the Ministry of Antiquities, said in a press statement it worked with Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Egyptian Embassy in London and British authorities to track down the priceless relic
They monitored the websites of international auction houses, before eventually finding the artefact for sale in the UK.
Abdel-Gawad said the ministry took “all the necessary procedures to stop the sale of the relief and withdraw it from auction.”
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More than 1,000 smuggled artefacts have been returned to the country over the past two years, reports Daily Egypt News.
The tablet’s recovery allows news around a fiery dispute around a casing stone from the Great Pyramid of Giza.
This block of limestone will go on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from February 23.
But the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has argued the legitimacy of the stone’s export, saying it may have been illegally removed from the country.
The ministry asked the museum to produce documents of ownership.
The museum says the stone was extracted from Giza in the 19th century by engineer Waynman Dixon and given to Scotland’s Astronomer Royal, Charles Piazzi Smyth.
But Abdel-Gawad said the ministry will take “all the necessary steps” to bring it back if it comes to light that the stone was illegally moved from Egypt.