Tweet
Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
Nov 27 2010
>From home to home
Nevine El-Aref reveals how 200 genuine objects from the ancient
Egyptian era to modern times held in a bank vault for decades were
handed over to the Supreme Council of Antiquities
Early this week, in a scene which could have been taken from The Da
Vinci Code, the Ahly National Bank of Egypt (ANBE) handed over to the
Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) 200 artefacts that had been
deposited there since early in the 20th century.
This collection includes pieces from the ancient Egyptian,
Graeco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras. Among them are limestone
statuary heads of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman deities such as
Horus, Hathor and Ptah, as well as Roman terracotta figurines and 20
Islamic and modern coins, including gold coins.
Hussein Bassir, head of the legal and technical committee that checked
the authenticity of the objects, says the most significant item in the
collection was the diary of an Armenian man called Oying Alexanian
which contained the names and telephone numbers of antiquities dealers
of the time, as well as the number of antiquities sale contracts.
"These two things gave us a vision of how the antiquities trade in
Egypt was rum at the time, especially that antiquities trading was
legal," Abdel-Bassir said.
The story of how these artefacts came to light began several years ago
when an Armenian antiquities dealer and a British collector, who both
lived in Cairo during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rented
two vaults at the ANBE to store some of their antiquities collection.
The rental for the vaults was paid for several years, but eventually
payments ceased and no one came forward to inquire about the vault
contents.
After receiving no information or rent for two years the ANBE opened
the vaults and, in compliance with Egyptian law, confiscated its
contents. Also according to the law, these remained in the bank's care
for 15 years in case someone came back to claim them.
This brings us to early this year, when the ANBE's executive board
carried out an inventory of the bank's special and long- term
possessions. No one knew exactly what was inside the two vaults as the
contents were the private deposits of the two foreigners. The ANBE
chairman, Tarek Amer, personally contacted Zahi Hawass,
secretary-general of the SCA, who sent a team of lawyers and
archaeologists to inspect the authenticity of the items. When the SCA
team confirmed their authenticity, the ANBE offered the collection to
the SCA as part of Egypt's tangible heritage. These objects are now
being restored at the Egyptian Museum before being placed on special
display at the museum next month.
Over the last seven years, and within Egypt's commitment to preserving
its heritage, more than 10,000 stolen and illegally- smuggled
artefacts have been returned from abroad to the SCA. The most recent
were 19 objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun formerly in the private
collections of Howard Carter and Lord Caernarvon, which were offered
by the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1024/he1.htm
From: A. Papazian
Nov 27 2010
>From home to home
Nevine El-Aref reveals how 200 genuine objects from the ancient
Egyptian era to modern times held in a bank vault for decades were
handed over to the Supreme Council of Antiquities
Early this week, in a scene which could have been taken from The Da
Vinci Code, the Ahly National Bank of Egypt (ANBE) handed over to the
Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) 200 artefacts that had been
deposited there since early in the 20th century.
This collection includes pieces from the ancient Egyptian,
Graeco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras. Among them are limestone
statuary heads of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman deities such as
Horus, Hathor and Ptah, as well as Roman terracotta figurines and 20
Islamic and modern coins, including gold coins.
Hussein Bassir, head of the legal and technical committee that checked
the authenticity of the objects, says the most significant item in the
collection was the diary of an Armenian man called Oying Alexanian
which contained the names and telephone numbers of antiquities dealers
of the time, as well as the number of antiquities sale contracts.
"These two things gave us a vision of how the antiquities trade in
Egypt was rum at the time, especially that antiquities trading was
legal," Abdel-Bassir said.
The story of how these artefacts came to light began several years ago
when an Armenian antiquities dealer and a British collector, who both
lived in Cairo during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rented
two vaults at the ANBE to store some of their antiquities collection.
The rental for the vaults was paid for several years, but eventually
payments ceased and no one came forward to inquire about the vault
contents.
After receiving no information or rent for two years the ANBE opened
the vaults and, in compliance with Egyptian law, confiscated its
contents. Also according to the law, these remained in the bank's care
for 15 years in case someone came back to claim them.
This brings us to early this year, when the ANBE's executive board
carried out an inventory of the bank's special and long- term
possessions. No one knew exactly what was inside the two vaults as the
contents were the private deposits of the two foreigners. The ANBE
chairman, Tarek Amer, personally contacted Zahi Hawass,
secretary-general of the SCA, who sent a team of lawyers and
archaeologists to inspect the authenticity of the items. When the SCA
team confirmed their authenticity, the ANBE offered the collection to
the SCA as part of Egypt's tangible heritage. These objects are now
being restored at the Egyptian Museum before being placed on special
display at the museum next month.
Over the last seven years, and within Egypt's commitment to preserving
its heritage, more than 10,000 stolen and illegally- smuggled
artefacts have been returned from abroad to the SCA. The most recent
were 19 objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun formerly in the private
collections of Howard Carter and Lord Caernarvon, which were offered
by the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1024/he1.htm
From: A. Papazian