Egypt: Mystery About Recovered Reliefs

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The lack of information and obfuscation of the news media in Egypt continues. Nevine El-Aref ("Looted limestone artefact recovered by police', Al Ahram 11 Oct 2011) fails to mention more than she reveals. One of the (how many?) limestone reliefs stolen ("reported missing") apparently from the Abusir Czech expedition storeroom "during the chaos that followed the January 25 Revolution" is now in the hands of the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Police (somewhere in Egypt). We are given the dimensions of the relief (but the accompanying stock picture is of the Meidum geese) - "one metre tall and 60 centimetres wide. It depicted four walking geese with a hieroglyphic text".

An archaeological mission from the Council has inspected the recovered relief and approved its authenticity.[...] Atef Abul Dahab, head of the ancient Egyptian department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told Ahram Online that the relief was one amongst those that were looted from the Abusir storage

We are given further the vague information that the object is now "at a police station and will be transferred tomorrow to the Council's lab for restoration. It may then be put on special display at the Egyptian museum" (why?).

Pretty noticeable is any information about the circumstances of this "recovery", where, when, who had it where, how the police learnt where to find it eight months after it went missing. It seems we have a problem with a definition of what "news" is, for the local journalist trained in the Mubarak era, it's the same "everything is OK" message that has always been put out, for the rest of us news is information which allows us to form our own judgements about what is happening in the world around us. What is happening here is that in the field of "antiquities", Egyptian journalism is producing the same fogscreen as we saw in the case of the Egyptian Museum looting and which has not stopped since. It seems that (as is not uncommon elsewhere) the theme of "heritage" is being exploited in Al-Ahram (at least) as a source of feel-good news ("got this back", "SCA boss did this/said this/ got an award", "new tourist site opened") and the more problematic issues get swept under the carpet.

UPDATE 16.10.11:
More information has now emerged, correcting the original information, but still not providing the missing details needed to understand what has been happening (Nevine El-Aref , 'Two reliefs stolen from Egypt's Hetepka tomb found', Al Ahram, Saturday 15 Oct 2011). It is now being said that the relief mentioned above comes from the fifth dynasty tomb of Hetepka in North Sakkara excavated by Geoffrey Martin in the 1960s (the tomb also reportedly had its false door looted this year). Now it seems:

the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Police have succeeded in recovering two well-preserved limestone reliefs stolen in 1986 by an international antiquities smuggling gang from Saqqara archaeological storehouses. The objects belong to the Fifth Dynasty tomb of the king's royal hairdresser Hetepka, discovered by British archaeologists Geoffrey Martin in the late 1960’s at the Old Kingdom cemetery at Saqqara necropolis. Although several members of the gang were caught in 2002 and sent to prison, among them the gang’s mastermind, Jonathan Tokeley-Parry and his partner, British antiquities trader Frederick Schultz, the four objects they stole had not been recovered. Two of the objects have [now] been found.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mostafa Amine is now quoted describing the recovered items:

a rectangular shaped relief of 100 centimetres in height and 60 centimetres in width. It depicts four geese and is decorated with hieroglyphic text.

The second relief, Amine pointed out, is engraved with three lines of hieroglyphic text written vertically as well as the cartouches of two of the Fifth Dynasty kings Sahure and Neferirkare.

The news report however leaves the place and manner of the discovery of these items unexplained, though the Luxor Times blog ('5th Dynasty reliefs are back in Egypt') ventures what looks like independent information (where from?) that the SCA and the Antiquities police in Sakkara were involved in their recovery. had they been hidden in Sakkaara 26 years? Al Ahram says of the other two pieces:

Atef Abul Dahab, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the SCA explained that following the trial of Tokeley-Parry and Schultz, Egypt reported the missing objects to Interpol, who is still looking for the other two reliefs that depict scenes of Egypt’s wildlife along with hieroglyphic text.

Al-Ahram has a photo of the second relief (a door jamb?). The photo shows the cartouches mentioned [Sahure on the centre left, Neferirkare bottom left] confirming that this time a stock photo was not used. The Luxor Times adds:

the tomb is documented and registered and the stolen objects of this tomb can’t be possessed by any museum or individual. Atef Abu El Dahab (Head of the Ancient Egyptian Department at SCA) announced that the objects from that tomb are being kept in the warehouse in Sakkara and it is secured as well as the tomb within the general plan of the area security.

FURTHER UPDATE 17th Oct. 2011:
Rick St Hilaire covers this case (Recovery of Looted Egyptian Tomb Reliefs Leaves Unanswered Questions) and spotted a discrepancy in the dates of the reported looting which I'd not noticed. He remarks "Ahram Online’s report is conspicuously vague".

Vignette: Abusir pyramids.
. Photo in update from Al Ahram, edited.