Al-Masry Al-Youm reports ('Authorities arrest police officer for possessing artifacts', 14/05/2011):
A police officer and two others with three statues in their possession have been arrested. A security source said they were apprehended on Wahat Road, in 6th of October City in Giza, when a police ambush stopped their car for inspection. "The three artifacts are of the head of the pharaonic queen Nefertiti. One is 7cm long, and the other two measure 15cm. They are suspected to be antiquities," said the source. He added that the suspects confessed that they intended to sell the pieces. A police report was filed and the appropriate authorities notified to examine the statues.[The article is accompanied by a photo of a wooden arm which does not seem to be related to the text]. I guess we will have to wait until tomorrow to learn if these are some of the missing Amarna pieces from the Egyptian Museum. Let us recall that it was reportedly a policeman involved in the attempted robbery at Karnak at the beginning of the 'revolt', and that it looks like the vandalism and looting of the Egyptian Museum was not the work of outsiders. Or were these three pieces of statuary looted from somewhere else? Or are they again tourist fake antiquities (copies of the bust of Nefertiti for example) which have been mistaken by Egyptian law enforcement authorities for originals?
UPDATE 18th May 2011: Several days on, we have learnt nothing more about these arrests and the objects that were seized. Silence. Why?
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