Issue No.588
Heritage
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30 May - 5 June 2002 Issue No.588 Heritage |
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Retrieved statue on show
A WELL-preserved sandstone statue of a New Kingdom high priest formerly kept in the house of a private collector in Holland has returned home 15 years after it was smuggled out of Egypt. Now, reports Nevine El-Aref, the masterpiece is on display at the Egyptian Museum.
Click to view captionOnly a month after its establishment, the Retrieved Monuments Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) successfully recovered the headless statue, which was stolen from the Temple of Montu within Amun-Re's temple complex of Karnak. The priest, who served at the temple in the reign of the 18th-dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III, was also named Amenhotep.
Amenhotep III built monuments all over the country, some of which were among the most magnificent ever built, and adorned them with magnificent statues. His mortuary temple on the Theban necropolis was washed away by a series of high floods, and all that remains are the twin statues known as the Colossi of Memnon.
The recovered statue, which is 50cm high and 33cm wide, is inscribed with hieroglyphic texts giving the names and titles of the Pharaoh Amenhotep.
"It is one more important achievement for Egypt," said Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, who extended his appreciation to Interpol for its collaboration with the Egyptian antiquities police in locating the statue and facilitating its return to Egypt.
Zahi Hawass, general secretary of the SCA, said the statue was stolen from the storehouse of the French mission working at the Temple of Montu. Along with the statue, another 54 objects were taken including a number of faience scarabs, stelae and a schist statue of Osiris.
"The statue of the priest Amenhotep is kneeling and holding a naos (shrine) in his arms. In the naos is a falcon," said senior SCA inspector Abdel-Hamid Maaruf. "It is a beautifully carved masterpiece."
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