Culture minister faces assembly onslaught

Parliamentarians pummelled Culture Minister Farouk Hosni with accusations of mishandling issues like antiquities smuggling and monument restoration. Gamal Essam El-Din reports

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On Sunday at the People's Assembly, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni found himself being confronted by 43 deputies of differing political inclinations regarding what was alleged to be the increased smuggling of Pharaonic antiquities and the deteriorating conditions of several ancient monuments.

When it came to smuggling, Hosni said that although the government gives utmost importance to safeguarding Egyptian antiquities against theft and smuggling, this job is not just the Culture Ministry's responsibility. Other bodies, and especially the interior and foreign ministries, also have important roles, he said.

Meanwhile, Hosni detailed his ministry's plans to protect antiquities by both "placing... treasures such as the Pyramids, the Coptic Museum, and the Edfu and Luxor temples under a strict electronic security system", as well as "constructing 23 storehouses aimed at protecting antiquities from smuggling, and keeping them intact". The ambitious plan will cost LE52 million, Hosni said.

The ministry is also currently conducting an inventory of every ancient piece in its possession as part of a greater strategy aimed at creating a comprehensive and scientific registry. Seventy-five per cent of the country's antiquities have already been registered, he said.

Hosni also spoke of the success the ministry has had in recovering antiquities that had already been smuggled out of the country. "Five-hundred pieces have been brought back to Egypt in the last two years," Hosni said. Although a variety of diplomatic means were being used towards this goal, there were limitations to what could be done. "A case in point," Hosni said, "was the current attempt being made to bring the Rosetta Stone back from England, even though Egypt has no legal right in this respect because the [piece] was removed from the country more than 150 years ago." Although Hosni credited laws and agreements passed and signed over the past three decades with helping to recover a great many smuggled pieces, he urged lawmakers to pass even more stringent measures. He also refuted claims that the so-called "Hapi" relief -- which was recovered from Japan -- was recently stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

As for restoration issues, Hosni conceded that several monuments from different historical periods were endangered by elements like urbanisation and the rise in underground water tables. The ministry was currently working with Sweden and the USAID, he said, to protect the Karnak Temple from such dangers.

Sixty-six Islamic monuments, meanwhile, in Cairo's Al-Gamaliya district, had been restored, with 36 others in the pipeline. In coordination with the Ministry of Waqf (Religious Endowments), 21 ancient mosques had also been restored, with work on 81 others set to be complete by the end of next December.

Hosni's responses, however, fell short of satisfying some MPs. The National Democratic Party's Mahmoud Maarouf, a journalist, cited a recent case where "police stopped more than 42,000 antiquities from being smuggled out of the country," as evidence that the illegal antiquities trade was alive and well.

Leftist MP El-Badri Farghali said the local and international mafias determined to plunder Egypt's precious ancient heritage "stole our present and future and are now stealing our past".