17 - 23 January 2002
Issue No.569
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2002 Issue No.569 |
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Continued dance with tomb robbers
Ancient Egyptian antiquities have suffered greatly at the hands of thieves. Robbers steal statues and cut reliefs from tombs; they break into storage rooms at antiquities sites to steal newly-found objects; and sometimes they even raid tombs before archaeologists excavate them. The authorities try to foil their attempts, but despite their best efforts they have never managed completely to stop the desecration of tombs and the illicit smuggling of artefacts. Thieves are still dancing on the stage.
The thieves do not know -- or do not care -- that they are not only damaging the tombs, but also spoiling the hopes of the individual in the afterlife. A few months ago, I was invited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at the request of Gaballa Ali Gaballa, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), to take a look at stolen Egyptian antiquities seized by the FBI. I was in Los Angeles lecturing on the recent discoveries in the Valley of the Golden Mummies in Bahriya, so I stopped in New York on the way back to Egypt and invited David Silverman, head of the archaeology department at the University of Pennsylvania, to accompany me.
The FBI offices are in Queens, New York. We were ushered down long corridors to the rooms where the antiquities were stored, and I was astounded at the treasures we found there. The first piece we examined was the head of a Pharaoh carved in black granite. I identified it as the head of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, one of the great rulers of the New Kingdom, known to us as "the Pasha of Ancient Egypt." The head was about 9 inches in height. I looked up at Tareq Abu Sena, the Egyptian vice-consul, who was with us, and the unspoken question was: how could something like this leave Egypt?
Archaeological artefacts are stolen everywhere in the world, but Egyptian antiquities have a magic and mystery that make them particularly desirable objects to museums and private collectors. Tomb robbers try to fill this market demand.
The royal head had no inscription, but it was easily identified because it was carved in the distinctive art style prevalent during the reign of Amenhotep III, and also because it came from a figure just slightly smaller than life-size, a proportion also dating from Amenhotep's time. I gazed at this masterpiece of ancient art, and the FBI officer asked me how much I thought it was worth. I told her that antiquities were priceless, and that I never put a monetary value on an Egyptian piece.
I was truly impressed by the care the FBI took over this piece, which was stored carefully in a humidity-controlled environment. But what impressed me even more was the general way in which the United States Attorney General and the FBI officers safeguarded our monuments. Two months ago, someone from the office of the Attorney General called me and said she needed a legal officer or lawyer from the SCA to explain to her Antiquities Law 117 of 1983. She said that she had been trying for some time to contact the appropriate Egyptian authority. I referred her to Gaballa, who in turn brought in Hesham Saria, the legal consultant for the SCA. We learned that Mary White, the United States Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, had arrested New York art gallery owner Frederick Schultz and charged him in a Manhattan federal court for taking part in a conspiracy to receive and possess stolen property, specifically four masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art.
I learned that the royal head I saw had sold for about $2 million. The reason for this high price was that it was rare indeed for such a piece to leave Egypt these days, especially one so beautifully carved as this Pharaoh. It had very fine features. The upper part of Amenhotep's forehead revealed a band, and a royal headdress; the right side of the face had a perfectly preserved eye, with a finely detailed cosmetic line and a well-defined brow. The remnants of a false beard were evident below the area of the now-destroyed chin. The right ear was complete and appeared to have a depression in the lobe, indicating a pierced ear.
When David Silverman and I had finished examining this piece and turned to the second stolen item seized by the FBI, we had a surprise ...
To be continued ...
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