Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Stolen Relief of King Amenhotep I to be Returned to Egypt

King Amenhotep I relief was located recently in a London auction house after being stolen from a museum in Luxor, in 1988.

Staff Writer

A smuggled relief of King Amenhotep  I, stolen in 1988 from Luxor’s open-air museum, has been located and recovered by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities.

Supervisor General of Antiquities of the Repatriation Department, Shabaan Abdel Gawad, explains that a foreign archaeologist had first recognised the stolen artefact at a London auction house. The relief, which is made out of limestone and inscribed with King Amenhotep I's name, had gone missing years ago from the open air museum in the Karnak Temple Complex.

After identifying the artefact, the archaeologist got in touch with the Ministry of Antiquities, who then went through all the steps and diplomatic procedure to halt the sale of the relief and work on transporting it back to Egypt. It was given to the Egyptian Embassy in London last week, with the intention to be sent home within a few days.

Main image taken from Ahram online.