Recovering heritage
Four important fragments of a limestone relief from a tomb in Luxor are amongst the latest crop of antiquities that will soon be returning to Egypt. Nevine El-Aref reports from Atlanta
The hundreds of people who gathered to attend the opening of the new "Ramses I: The Search for the Lost Pharaoh" exhibit at Atlanta's Michael C Carlos Museum this week also got to see the museum's director hand four fragments from an ancient Egyptian painted limestone relief over to Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).
The fragments -- which came into the museum's possession as part of a lot of 145 ancient Egyptian objects purchased from the Niagara Falls Museum in 1999 -- represent another chapter in the continuing saga involving artefacts that were illegally removed from Egypt being brought back into the country.
In this case, the fragments belong to the tomb of Seti I in Luxor, generally regarded as the finest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. According to Peter Lacovara, curator of the Carlos Museum's Egyptian art department, when the lot from Niagara Falls -- which also included coffins, mummies and other artefacts -- was being unpacked and examined by the museum's curators, "I could not miss it. Every relief of this magnificent tomb is printed in my mind. So when I saw the fragments, I immediately recognised the distinguished style of Seti I's tomb."
Seti's tomb caused a sensation when Giovanni Belzoni first discovered it in 1817. Unfortunately, when it was first opened, the tomb was exposed to flood waters that caused cracks in the unstable layers of inter bedded shale and limestone into which the tomb had been carved. Over the years, as more and more fragments were loosened and fell off the tomb walls, they were picked up by tourists and can now be found in museums all over the world.
According to Hawass, the Carlos Museum's decision to return the items to Egypt represents a fruitful example of cooperation between scholars, as well as the noble idea that museums should be just as interested in placing antiquities on public display as returning them -- when warranted -- to their origins. Hawass -- who described the repatriation as "a wonderful gift" -- said he "hopes that other museums around the world would follow this example". The SCA chief also urged museums not to deal with antiquities dealers, and to do more to help recover and return stolen antiquities back to their homelands. "Any museum that buys illegally smuggled items," warned Hawass, "will be subject to the SCA cutting off their right to excavation and restoration works in Egypt."
A major celebration -- held under the auspices of Culture Minister Farouk Hosni -- will be held next week at the Egyptian Museum to commemorate the recovery of the Seti tomb fragments. The four pieces make up a beautiful painted relief featuring standing figures of the deceased in front of his preferable deities, along with horizontal hieroglyphic text. The oval moulding of the fragments suggest that they came from the innermost part of the tomb and capped a ledge that ran around the room where funerary equipment was stored. This room had been especially affected by the elements, and many additional fragments were removed from it.
Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Carlos Museum would also be returning a mummy of the 19th Dynasty King Ramses I, Seti I's father, in September.
Meanwhile, a museum in Canada is also giving back a 1.5 metre high limestone statue of a cobra that dates back to the New Kingdom. A relief of Beihbet Al-Hegara, which the SCA was able to stop Christies' auction house from selling last year, will also be back next month.
