Egypt retrieves ancient priest statue from Holland
Egypt has brought back an ancient statue of Nikaw-Ptah from Holland as the government works to recover many stolen antiquities from abroad.
Egypt has recovered an ancient statue of a priest from the Old Kingdom that had been smuggled abroad.
On July 26, the Foreign Ministry handed over the artifact to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
In a statement by the Ministry of Tourism, Shaaban Abdel Gawad, the supervisor of the ministry’s Department of Recovered Antiquities, said that the statue was put up for sale at the annual European Fine Art Fair in the city of Maastricht in the Netherlands.
Abdel Gawad explained that the statue was found to have been illegally taken out of Egypt. He pointed out that the statue was not found to be registered with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which suggests that it was taken through illegal digging.
