12 July 2023; MEMO: German authorities have handed over to Egypt more than 40 artefacts that were smuggled out of the country and discovered at Frankfurt airport, reports the Egypt Independent.
The artefacts came from Thailand and were on their way to the UK when they were seized, according to Khaled Galal, the Egyptian ambassador to Berlin.
Galal told the Egypt Independent that this is the fifth time Egyptian artefacts have been smuggled into Germany.
Several countries, including the US, have been returning antiquities to Egypt over recent months.
In January, a looted ancient Egyptian sarcophagus on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science was returned to Egypt. The "Green Coffin," worth over $1 million, was looted from the north of Egypt by a global art trafficking network and smuggled via Germany.
In September last year, the US returned six antiquities to Egypt worth over $4 million after an investigation found that they had been illegally trafficked.
While in 2021 Israel handed Egypt 95 artefacts that had been found for sale or smuggled into the country.
Activists and campaigners have intensified calls for the repatriation of art and artefacts in recent years.
However, the British Museum in London has said it will not hand over the Rosetta Stone to Egypt despite the fact that thousands of Egyptians have asked them to do so. While Germany's Neues Museum in Berlin has said it will not return the bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.
