Nearly three meters long, 90 centimeters wide, the sarcophagus arrived Monday in Cairo is impressive. But this return, from the United States, is only the latest in a long list of 29,000 pieces of stolen antiquity, recovered in a decade by Egypt. The result of a proactive cultural policy and many diplomatic efforts, aimed at promoting the country to attract more and more tourists.
Why did so many Egyptian antiquities end up in nature? Are our museums full of artifacts stolen from the Egyptian people? How do Western countries and Egypt work together to continue exhibiting pieces while ensuring the integrity of Egyptian heritage? 20 minutes takes stock with Chloé Ragazzoli, Egyptologist at the Sorbone and President of the French Society of Egyptology.
How could so many antiquities be smuggled out of Egypt?
The success of exhibitions on ancient Egypt is not new: curiosity for the Orient, already sensitive during the modern period, turned into a rush towards the sands in the 19th century, after the expedition to Egypt led by Napoleon. This is one of the most famous episodes in the legend of the future emperor: thanks to a military expedition that turns into a fiasco, the Corsican returns to France loaded with unpublished archaeological finds. In the orientophile frenzy of the following decades, Westerners “took advantage of this to build up collections when antiquities had no legal status of their own”, explains Chloé Ragazzoli. At that time, “the right to excavation was granted as a diplomatic favor” by Mehmet Ali, who offered the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde to France.
The pace of excavations does not slow down, but from the middle of the 19th century “and the constitution of the Egyptian antiquities service, there is a sharing of excavations between Westerners and Egyptians”, explains the lecturer at the Sorbonne. A practice more framed in theory, but which remains imperfect. Finally, “since the Unesco convention of April 24, 1972 on cultural property, no object can leave Egypt” legally, she says. But interest from private collectors has never waned, and the country’s chronic instability has long allowed unscrupulous dealers to slip through the cracks.
Are Western museums full of stolen antiquities?
The “green” sarcophagus returned on Monday was on display in an American museum. Before him, the New York MET had also returned a stolen sarcophagus, and the Louvre found itself embroiled in the purchase of a stele of Tutankhamun from looting. From there to accusing Western museums of enriching their collections through theft, there is only one step that would be easy to take. But in reality, “it’s when antiquities arrive in public museums that we realize their origin”, notes Chloé Ragazzoli. These stolen goods “first arrive in private collections”, which also makes it impossible to estimate their number.
“Dealers make up their origins to suggest that they were already in private collections before the Unesco convention”, in particular by inventing former owners. When the artifact ends up falling into the hands of a museum, its “pedigree” is examined: dated photographs of the object, authenticity of the documents… You have to know precisely the date of arrival of the antiquity on the ground western. “This is the determining element to know if it is a theft”, explains the Egyptologist, who insists on the caution of the researchers. “If there is any doubt, we refrain from any publication”, she decides.
Why have these artifacts become a diplomatic issue?
Once the museum determined that the object was stolen, the return to Egypt has therefore become the usual route for a few years. “It’s a common affair”, estimates Chloé Ragazzoli about the sarcophagus, which meets an echo by the dimensions of the object but also because Egypt makes it “advertising”. “It’s in tune with the times, the countries that have been colonized are rebuilding their history”, explains the Egyptologist. For Egypt, which derives 10% of its GDP from tourism, repatriating its heritage is crucial both in terms of identity and economy. “This allows Egypt to exist on the international scene,” adds the researcher. Without forgetting that this “cultural diplomacy” is in fact a win-win deal: on the other side of the Mediterranean, “the countries that return the stolen coins show their good will”.