U.S. Returns Missing Sarcophagus to EgyptBy STAN PARCHINMarch 10, 2010Sarcophagus Being Unpacked for Repatriation Ceremony. Photograph courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sarcophagus Being Unpacked for Repatriation Ceremony (detail). Photograph courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After a two-year international investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) returned today a 3,000-year-old ornately painted sarcophagus to the Arab Republic of Egypt and its Embassy. The repatriation ceremony at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. was attended by Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for ICE John Morton, CBP Assistant Commissioner Allen Gina and others. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), accepted the colorful coffin on behalf of his country. CBP officers intercepted the empty Egyptian sarcophagus at Miami International Airport in 2008 and examined it for agricultural concerns. A specialist referred the hieroglyphics-inscribed artifact to the Trade Enforcement Team and ICE. The Maryland resident and importer who purchased the coffin for $22,000 claimed to have sold it to a Canadian patron. Felix Cervera, a Spanish art gallery owner who exported the work, could not provide ICE and CBP with documentation regarding the object's credible provenance. The sarcophagus was then seized as imported stolen property. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, ICE and CBP Miami successfully countered the Spaniard's subsequent legal challenge before it could go to trial. ICE Special Agent Vincent Menditto said one clue to the coffin's illegal entry into the United States was its method of shipment in bubble wrap, blankets and styrofoam peanuts. Suspicions were further raised when it was discovered that Cervera exported the object circuitously from Barcelona, Spain to Dublin, Ireland, Orlando, Florida and then to Miami. The two-piece wooden and plastered sarcophagus from Egypt's 21st Dynasty (ca. 1070-945 B.C.) is brightly painted with clear hieroglyphic writing on it. It was created for an elite male named Imesy. The coffin's decoration includes protective religious symbols for Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and the four sons of Horus, gods and goddesses believed to help the deceased travel safely to the afterlife. Texts inscribed along the work's center are requests for funerary offerings, including bread and beer. Upon its return home, the coffin will be the centerpiece of a new special exhibition at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo opening April 7, 2010. The installation features artifacts and other treasures that were repatriated to Egypt in the last eight years. It will later become part of the permanent collection of a museum in Sharm el-Sheikh. Regarding the antiquity's restoration to Egypt, Dr. Hawass said, "A piece of our history that left Egypt under mysterious circumstances has found its way home with the help of our partners in the U.S. government. Since I took office eight years ago, the U.S. has assisted in the repatriation of many stolen artifacts to Egypt. We welcome the return of this beautiful wooden sarcophagus and look forward to learning more about its history."
U.S. Returns Missing Sarcophagus to EgyptBy STAN PARCHINMarch 10, 2010
Permalink: http://artmuseumjournal.com/US_returns_sarcophagus_egypt.aspx
Please enable JavaScript to view this page content properly.