Kuwait hands over smuggled pharaonic antiquities to Egypt seized in 2019

Kuwait handed over 5 Pharaonic antiquities to Egypt, Thursday, which were seized by the General Administration of Customs at Kuwait Airport in 2019.

Director of Antiquities and Museums Department at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters Sultan Al-Dawish said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on the sidelines of the official handover of the antiquities, that they were “priceless”, and “was seized in 2019 in the possession of a traveler who arrived on a direct flight from Luxor to Kuwait.” .

Al-Duweesh explained that, “After scrutiny by archaeologists from Kuwait University, Poland and Egypt, it was found that three of them are original pieces dating back to about 1400 BC, and two pieces of questionable authenticity.”

The Kuwaiti official stated that “a number of Kuwaiti authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Administration of Customs, the Public Prosecution, the National Council for Culture and the Kuwait National Museum, have cooperated with the Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait to verify the stolen antiquities and return them to their original homeland, in implementation of international agreements in this regard.”

And he stated that “this is the second delivery to Egypt, after Kuwait returned in 2018 the cover of a wooden pharaonic coffin after it was seized by air cargo customs at Kuwait Airport.”

The Egyptian ambassador to Kuwait, Osama Shaltout, praised the role of the Kuwaiti official authorities in their “relentless efforts to return the Pharaonic antiquities and their cooperation with the competent authorities in Cairo to verify the originality of the pieces, and to ensure their return to the Egyptian museums.”

Shaltout added that “the cooperation between the two countries also included the investigation of some people accused of the smuggling operation,” referring to the visit of a delegation from the Egyptian Public Prosecution and antiquities specialists last March to Kuwait, to follow up the case, inspect the seizures and complete the formal handing over procedures.
The Egyptian diplomat explained that “the initial examination of the smuggled artifacts proved the originality of 3 of them,” noting the need for further research and examination of the other two pieces to know their history and put them in the right place in Egyptian history.

It is noteworthy that the artifacts seized in Kuwait are 4 statues of the kings of the Pharaonic civilization, including a statue of King “Amenhotep III” and another of “Amun-Ra” and a statue of a Pharaonic woman in traditional costumes, and another statue of the Pharaonic god “Horus”, in addition to an inscribed rock mural.