[CPProt.net] Egypt wants its museum treasures back

[MSN CPPnet]

Egypt wants its museum treasures back
July 14, 2005 - 6:44AM

 
Egypt is launching a campaign for the return of five of its most precious
artefacts from museums abroad, including the Rosetta Stone in London and the
graceful bust of Nefertiti in Berlin.

Zahi Hawass, the country's chief archaeologist, said the UN's cultural
agency UNESCO had agreed to mediate in its claims for artefacts currently at
the British Museum, Paris' Louvre, two German museums and Boston's Museum of
Fine Arts.

If Egypt presses the campaign, it would be joining for the first time what
has been an uphill battle by several countries to get back pieces they see
as looted by Western museums, usually during the colonial era.

Most notably, Greece has been seeking for decades the return of the
Parthenon's Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.

The pieces Hawass said Egypt is seeking are among the prized icons of
European museums.

The Rosetta Stone, a 725kg slab of black basalt with a triple inscription,
was the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It has been a
major draw for London's British Museum, which attracts five million visitors
a year.

The same holds true at Berlin's Egyptian Museum with its bust of Nefertiti.
The 3,000-year-old bust has become a symbol of ancient beauty with its
depiction of the queen's delicate neck, elegantly arched brows and towering
blue headdress.

The British Museum has long refused Greece's attempts at regaining the Elgin
Marbles. A spokeswoman at the museum, Hannah Boulton, said they had not
received any request from Egypt for the Rosetta Stone and that the museum
would comment only when it got one.

But Boulton suggested Egypt would get the same response as Greece.

"The museum considers everything in its World Collection should stay as part
of the collection to give people the opportunity to see masterpieces from
around the world," she said.

In 2003, the British museum turned down a request by Hawass to lend the
stone to Egypt for a visit. The museum responded by saying that "to loan
such pieces would result in our disappointing the five million or so
visitors who come to the museum every year".

Officials at Berlin's Egyptian Museum could not be reached for comment.

UNESCO officials could not immediately confirm that the agency had agreed to
mediate with museums over Egypt's claims.

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