Repatriating an ancient Egyptian palette from New York - Egy Antiquities

Lost history in Egypt

Egypt puts relentless and continuous efforts to repatriate its antiquities that were smuggled abroad. The Egyptian state and its institutions provide great support for preserving its heritage and cultural history. In that respect, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, succeeded in retrieving an antique limestone palette dating back to the late period that was put for sale in an auction house in New York.

Ancient Egyptian Palette

Mr. Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, Director General of the Department of Repatriated Antiquities at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, said that Ambassador Dr. Hisham Al-Naqib, the Egyptian Consul General in New York, received the artifact yesterday and it is scheduled to return to Egypt soon.

He added that the recovery of this piece came after strenuous efforts by the department of the repatriated antiquities in monitoring the artifact, and to provide all evidence to New York City’s Attorney General Office and The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in turn provided all cooperation to take all necessary measures during the investigations.

This investigation proved Egypt's ownership of the artifact and that it was stolen. The investigation revealed that the artifact was illegally smuggled outside Egypt with a fake export permit attributed to the Egyptian authorities dating back to the 1970s. Accordingly, the Investigation Office issued a decision to confiscate the artifact in December 2019, and return it to its original homeland, Egypt.

This piece is a limestone palette called Pa-di-Sena, which dates back to the late period and represents the god Horus and the goddess Hathor and is about 110 cm high and 35 cm wide.

The palette has rare inscriptions showing the owner of the painting making offerings to the god Horus and the goddess Isis, in addition to a hieroglyphic text.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities extends its sincere thanks to the American Prosecutor's Office in New York City for the efforts to recover Egypt's smuggled antiquities from the United States of America.

One of the most prominent pieces that returned due to this cooperation was the Ankh coffin, which returned from New York last October