US Museum Returns Stolen Egyptian Sarcophagus

A museum in the American state of New York has returned a gilded sarcophagus to Egypt, eight years after it was looted by art thieves in the wake of the Arab Spring.

The sarcophagus – crafted between 150 BCE and 50 BCE, and believed to have once held the mummy of high-ranking priest, Nedjemankh – was taken from Egypt’s Minya region in 2011 at the height of the country’s political revolution.

Passing through Dubai, Germany and Paris, the sarcophagus was ultimately bought for $4 million by New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art from an unidentified French art dealer in 2017.

Now, the artefact has been returned to Egypt, after it was seized by a New York-based unit investigating the trafficking of antiquities.

Cyrus Vance, Manhattan’s district attorney, said at the repatriation ceremony: “Thus far, our investigation has determined that this coffin is just one of hundreds of antiquities stolen by the same multinational trafficking ring.”

Vance also remarked that “more significant seizures of prominent antiquities in the months and years to come” are possible.

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