The Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities has just received from customs officials five Ecuadorian and Peruvian artefacts confiscated from Cairo International Airport, the objects have gone to the Egyptian museum in central Cairo, and will be handed over to the Ecuadorian and Peruvian embassies this week: Official Ahmed El-Rawi told Ahram Online that the statues were confiscated in March when the police at the airport caught an Egyptian citizen trying to illegally smuggle the objects to Alexandria. The objects had been transported to Egypt from the United States in a wooden box. It would be interesting to know whether these objects were part of the importer's own collection, or whether they were destined for the trade, perhaps through, or to, the Gulf States. It is so easy to think of some countries, like Egypt, only as source countries, but the consumption of antiquities globally is far from the simple one-way process we tend to think of.
Nevine El-Aref, 'Egyptian customs seize smuggled artefacts from Peru, Ecuador', AlAhram online Wednesday 19 Jun 2013
UPDATE 28/6/13
Donna Yates points out that the material the objects are made from and the dates given are way off. Usual antiquities journalism level then.
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