An attempt by a security guard in the Coptic Museum to steal an artifact from the museum was foiled by the police at the nearby metro station where he planned to take the metro home. The news was announced by Mustafa Amin, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Mr Amin said the guard had chopped off a piece from a wooden door panel that had once belonged to the 5th century church of St Barbara in Old Cairo, the old quarter of Cairo that houses numerous 4th and 5th-century churches. He put it in a plastic bag and hid it in his clothes as he left the museum. At the metro station, a few minutes’ walk from the museum, he was arrested by the metro police who also confiscated the stolen piece. He is being prosecuted, and the piece should be handed over to the antiquity authorities.
Watani International
17 September 2017