Sekhemka's Revenge - Disciplinary Hearing

BBC News - Sekhemka sale: Northampton Museum facing 'disciplinary'

The council that sold an ancient statue of an Egyptian priest for nearly £16m is to face a disciplinary session of the Museums Association. Northampton Borough Council must explain the reasons for the sale of the 4,000-year-old Sekhemka statue. It could face a further loss of funding at the meeting on 1 October. The council said the Arts Council had also withdrawn access to funding and it would respond to the Museums Association when this was resolved.

A spokesperson for the Museums Association expressed the concern that other cash-seeking philistine local councils may decide to sell off other cultural assets from public collections in their care, and announced that a summit of other funders, including the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council, would be called later in the year:

"We already have a red list to protect heritage sites at risk. Now we will ask the summit members to create a similar list for collections."

Obviously that part of the national heritage which is currently curated in scattered ephemeral private collections will not be affected. This cultural property is regularly scattered and sold without anyone batting an eyelid.