Egypt: More Cheating Dealers Caught Out

Egypt has received over 374 illegal contraband antiques seized on their way to unscrupulous dealers via France and the US. Dealers who continue to trade in undocumented antiquities claiming, like Classical Coins' Dave Welsh, that there is nothing illegal about antiquities with missing documentation, are collectively responsible for the trafficking of illicit antiquities:

Over the past couple of days, Egypt has regained over 240 antiques, which were illegally smuggled to France. Only a day later, another 134 ancient pieces found their way back home from the US, after being illegally sold [...]  The pieces range from jewellery, statues, stone and pottery pots and some coins go back to the Roman and Greek eras.  [...] As for the 134 pieces restored from the US, they included two wooden tombs with statues inside, with coins, wooden sculptures and stone statues. El-Damaty added that Egypt has received over 90 antiques recently from Germany, Denmark and South Africa. 

Note that the coins are being handled by the same smugglers that deal in other antiquities, meaning there can be no numismo-exceptionalism, the trade in dugup ancient coins must be treated in the same way as the trade in any other kind of dugup artefacts. They are both an integral part of the same dirty business.

Source
Nada Deyaa’, 'Egypt receives over 374 illegal contraband antiques from France, US', Daily News Egypt April 26, 2015.

Nevine El-Aref , France returns 240 illegally smuggled artefacts to Egypt Al Ahram Sunday 26 Apr 2015 (with pictures)