Pilleurs d'Egypte: We did not Hear This at the Time

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Pilleurs d'Egypte has a little snippet I'd not heard before, which rather casts some doubt on that story of the Akhenaton in the rubbish and the "bits found in the Museum gardens" story:

Même les nombreux musées du Caire n'ont pas été épargnés: "Pendant la révolution, on vendait des bibelots et du mobilier national venant de musées historiques sur le trottoir pour 30 ou 40 livres (moins de 4 et 5 euros), déplore Christian Leblanc, célèbre archéologue français chargé du chantier du Ramesseum, à Louxor. Heureusement, des Egyptiens cultivés ont racheté ces biens patrimoniaux pour les restituer au Conseil suprême des forces armées.

If that is what was happening, Hawass was at pains to hide it. This would rather clash with the official "human chain around the museum" model. If this is how some (many) of the looted objects were really returned to the museum - through third parties, it would explain why the authorities have been unable to obtain information from the sellers where the rest are.