Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – Egypt has successfully recovered an ancient wooden coffin cover from a Houston museum in the US.

The coffin cover was smuggled from Egypt several years ago.

Egypt succeeded in recovering the coffin cover which was smuggled from Egypt several years ago. Image credit: Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)

Egypt’s Consul General in Houston Hossam El-Qawish succeeded in recovering the coffin cover which was smuggled from Egypt several years ago.

The process is part of Egypt’s strenuous efforts to recover smuggled artefacts and antiquities through cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,”  Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mostafa Waziri said, in a press release.

These efforts started in 2019 when the country requested the US Attorney General’s Office in Manhattan return a gilded coffin of Tut Ankh Amun that was on display at the Metropolitan Museum and is now on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat, Cairo. Investigations intro the recovery process of the coffin took more than four years.

Head of SCA’s Restored Antiquities Department Shaaban Abdel-Gawad said that investigations carried out by the US side uncovered an international smuggling network and six other artefacts that were returned from the Metropolitan Museum earlier this month and delivered to the Egyptian consulate in Houston.

The restored wooden cover dates back to the old Pharaonic eras. The over three-metre-long relic carries hieroglyphic inscriptions and has a green-coloured golden façade.

El-Qawish expressed his thanks and appreciation to the US authorities for their help in returning the Egyptian antique.

Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer