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An ancient coffin, looted during the 2011 Egyptian revolution and sold to the Met for $4 million, will be returned to its home, the DA said.
NEW YORK CITY — A golden coffin discovered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be returned to its home in Egypt — eight years after it was looted in the wake of the country's revolution.
The more than 2,000-year-old artifact will be taken back to Egypt following an investigation of a multi-national web of antiquities traffickers, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Hassan Shoukry announced Wednesday.
"Coming as we do from all over the world in New York, we New Yorkers place a strong value on cultural character," Vance told reporters. "These items may be worth millions in the marketplace, but each item represents, in our view, much more commercial profit. Each item is part of a cultural history that needs to be celebrated, respected and vigorously protected."
The gold coffin dating back to between 150 and 50 B.C. once held the remains of a high-ranking priest, Nedjemankh, the district attorney's office said.
In 2011, it was stolen from the Minya region in Egypt — around the time when the country was in the middle of a political uprising.
Smugglers took it to Germany by way of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, according to Vance's office. After it was restored, it was taken to France where a Parisian dealer sold it to New York's own Metropolitan Museum of Art for about $4 million.
"Today, we are celebrating the return of one of our national treasures," Shoukry said.
He said the golden coffin would be returned to the country's antiquities ministry, though a museum where it will be displayed has not yet been chosen.
Investigators discovered the coffin was stolen after they found falsified documents that claimed to prove the object's authenticity.
The coffin's appearance on the market after Egypt's revolution in 2011 also "should have been a red flag," Vance said.
"The cultural symbolic worth of this Egyptian treasure far surpasses any monetary value in Egypt. This is their cultural currency," said Peter Fitzhugh, a special agent for U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
Prosecutors did not announce charges against any antiquities traffickers on Wednesday, and it remains to be seen how many people are culpable because the investigation is still ongoing.
But officials said hundreds of artifacts from across Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq could be uncovered in the trafficking ring.
Already, the DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered Lebanese marble statues, a Roman mosaic, a Buddhist sculpture, 12th century Indian statues and other antiquities valued at more than $150 million.
"It's not an exaggeration to say hundreds," said Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, who leads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit. "The question then becomes tracking them down and finding where they are now."
source: https://patch.com/new-york/downtown-nyc/ancient-gold-coffin-returns-egypt-after-met-bought-it-4m
NEW YORK CITY — A golden coffin discovered in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be returned to its home in Egypt — eight years after it was looted in the wake of the country's revolution.
The more than 2,000-year-old artifact will be taken back to Egypt following an investigation of a multi-national web of antiquities traffickers, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Hassan Shoukry announced Wednesday.
"Coming as we do from all over the world in New York, we New Yorkers place a strong value on cultural character," Vance told reporters. "These items may be worth millions in the marketplace, but each item represents, in our view, much more commercial profit. Each item is part of a cultural history that needs to be celebrated, respected and vigorously protected."
The gold coffin dating back to between 150 and 50 B.C. once held the remains of a high-ranking priest, Nedjemankh, the district attorney's office said.
In 2011, it was stolen from the Minya region in Egypt — around the time when the country was in the middle of a political uprising.
Smugglers took it to Germany by way of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, according to Vance's office. After it was restored, it was taken to France where a Parisian dealer sold it to New York's own Metropolitan Museum of Art for about $4 million.
"Today, we are celebrating the return of one of our national treasures," Shoukry said.
He said the golden coffin would be returned to the country's antiquities ministry, though a museum where it will be displayed has not yet been chosen.
Investigators discovered the coffin was stolen after they found falsified documents that claimed to prove the object's authenticity.
The coffin's appearance on the market after Egypt's revolution in 2011 also "should have been a red flag," Vance said.
"The cultural symbolic worth of this Egyptian treasure far surpasses any monetary value in Egypt. This is their cultural currency," said Peter Fitzhugh, a special agent for U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.
Prosecutors did not announce charges against any antiquities traffickers on Wednesday, and it remains to be seen how many people are culpable because the investigation is still ongoing.
But officials said hundreds of artifacts from across Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq could be uncovered in the trafficking ring.
Already, the DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered Lebanese marble statues, a Roman mosaic, a Buddhist sculpture, 12th century Indian statues and other antiquities valued at more than $150 million.
"It's not an exaggeration to say hundreds," said Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, who leads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit. "The question then becomes tracking them down and finding where they are now."
source: https://patch.com/new-york/downtown-nyc/ancient-gold-coffin-returns-egypt-after-met-bought-it-4m
