The Egyptian embassy in Berlin has received a 2,700 year-old statue that was
seized in a German-based auction house last year. According to the Antiquities
Ministry’s Restored Artifacts Department (RAD) head Ali Ahmed, the 4.5 inch-
high ivory statue was monitored on display at Aton Gallery for Egyptian Art in the
city of Oberhausen, west of Germany.
“The statue, along with dozens of other ancient Egyptian artifacts was stolen from
the storerooms of the Antiquities Ministry in Aswan’s Elephantine Island, which
were looted in 2013,” said Ahmed. It dates back to the Late Period [(664B.C.-332
B.C.)], which ended with the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great and
establishment of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and was unearthed by a Swiss
archaeological mission that carried out Excavations at Khnum Temple at
Elephantine’s in 2008.
The statue is of an ordinary man in standing position carrying an antelope over his
shoulders.
Watani International
10 February 2016