Accusations of Egyptian Activists Against Doha's Museum of Islamic Art Refuted

Nevine El-Aref, 'Egypt Antiquities Ministry says no Islamic artefacts are missing', Al-Ahram Monday 9 Sep 2013.

The title of this text is rather misleading. A few days ago, I discussed the reports of missing objects from the Islamic Museum in Cairo, and they are indeed still missing:

Regarding seven bronze artefacts declared missing from Cairo's MIA during renovation work – two statues, an incense burner, a key inlaid with silver decoration, a pot, a jewellery box and an astrolabe – Ibrahim told Ahram Online the objects were reported missing four years ago, before he came to office, during an inventory made in 2010 before the official re-opening of the museum after its restoration.

This article is about something else. I did not report this at the time because right at the beginning I judged it to be a nonsense story based on a fertile imagination laced with conspiracy theory. The September 6th article also contained other far more serious accusations:

Over the weekend, artists and activists wrote on social media sites that 35 objects from Cairo's MIA had suddenly appeared in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. Hani El-Masri wrote on his Facebook page ... [....]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... So an international row breaks out and instead of doing other stuff, the Minister has to meet the press:

A number of artefacts exhibited at Doha's Museum of Islamic Arts (MIA) are not from Cairo's Museum of Islamic Arts (MIA), Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said at a press conference on Monday [...] "All that has been said on Facebook and in the media are unfounded rumours," asserted Ibrahim. He added that he had received a complete report from the MIA curator that all the collection was accounted for. "The photos published are not of MIA objects, and were not at any time," Ibrahim confirmed..

The confusion seems to be due to the fact that at several times in the past, decorative items or elements used by Egyptian artisans or created in Egypt were spread all over the Islamic world. Ibrahim called on social media users to be sure of their facts before publishing. It seems that for some reason there is a lot of rumour and gossip in the Egyptian archaeological community, and unfounded accusations become widespread in such a milieu with ease. Original report containing the rumours: Nevine El-Aref, 'Reports of missing objects from Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art' Al-Ahram Friday 6 Sep 2013