Egypt seeks to recover 3,000-year-old King Tut bust from auction
The Egyptian government is seeking ways to try and recover its stolen and smuggled antiquities, namely the statue of Tutankhamun’s head that the London-based Christie’s auction house is planning to put up for sale.
CAIRO — London-based auction house Christie’s is poised to sell a bust of Tutankhamun — whose value is around $5 million — on July 4, despite Cairo’s persistent legal and diplomatic efforts to prevent it.
But Egyptian sources have not yet lost hope on halting the sale. A source from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “There are negotiations with Christie’s about recovering the antiquities put up for sale. [We] are looking into the documents related to those pieces, namely the statue of Tutankhamun’s head.”
Egypt has made diplomatic demarches to UNESCO, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Christie’s in order to stop the sale of the antiquities and request their return to Egypt, according to a June 10 statement by the Egyptian Embassy in London.
Three days later, Egypt’s General Prosecution issued a memo addressed to the British government to stop the sale of the bust of Tutankhamun and other artifacts from Egypt.
