Mubarak Accuser Sobhy Attiya Younis

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Every few weeks another worm crawls out of the woodwork to accuse somebody in the former Egyptian administration of some antiquitist wrongdoing, its hawass, he has a hat, a clothes-line, allowed a photographer to use Tut's throne as a prop, pinched some money, allowed the Jews to touch the pharoahs' mummies, won't give everyone with an archaeology degree a job. The list of things Mubarak is said to have done has no end (no mention of child abuse yet though - but almost everything else). All without a scrap of evidence. So the latest story going the rounds, and now seized on by the pro-collecting blogs is that Mubarak "gave away antiquities". The source of this seems to be one guy:

Sobhi Atiya, dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels at Mansoura University, told the members of the CCTM that [...] Hosni Mubarak offered various ancient artefacts from the Egyptian Museum to their counterparts abroad. [...] Atiya also noted that Mubarak followed in the steps of his ancestors by offering authentic pieces to foreign presidents. "If they admired any artefact on display in the Egyptian Museum, it disappeared from its showcase," he said.

well, I wonder whether if the head of the Tourism and Hotel Studies  Department of Bournemouth Polytechnic made similar accusations against Prince Andrew (for example) without presenting a shred of evidence (for example an actual example of an object that was in a BM case and then disappeared from it when somebody said "ooo that's nice Andy!") he would be getting such international press attention. I think not. Who, actually is Sobhy Attiya (Sobhy Attiya Younis in one version)? Googling him and his Faculty only produces rehashed versions of the same story, no evidence cited there either. I suppose he might have a hand in training site and museum guides - and thus may be in contact with them, and these are the stories they are reporting. Any reader who knows what's what who has actually tried questioning in any detail the guide you get on a guided tour of an Egyptian monument might have some thoughts on that. 

The rest of the Al Ahram article gives the taste of what is going on. According to the writer each and every artefact dug out of Egyptian soil should still be there, in Egypt. So here in Warsaw (in our lootless National "Universal" Museum) we have objects Egypt gave Poland for forking out a lot of dosh and expertise to help save the monuments and sites being flooded when the Aswan dam was built. The grateful Egyptian people gave us some of the items saved to display over here (and quite nice the display is too). I get the impression from the Al-Ahram article that the writer thinks they should never have been gifted. 

Yet if we look further down the article, we find reference to the official documentation in the Egyptian Museum which records the official deaccession of the items that were gifted to other nations. Including (Sobhy Attiya will be glad to hear - if he's willing to believe that this is not part of the "conspiracy"): 

Al-Achmawi says Mubarak did not give away any part of Egypt's heritage to any foreign country during his 30 years in power. According to Egyptian Museum documents from May 1980 to February 2011, Al-Achmawi said, no gifts had been registered in the documents, nor had any objects been removed from the museum or any archaeological sites to be given to any kings, queens or presidents abroad. Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim supports Al-Achmawi's view, and confirmed that there was no evidence to support the removal or departure of any object exhibited at the Egyptian Museum as a presidential present during Mubarak's tenure.