Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities Statement on Sekhemka

Prof. Mamdouh Eldamaty

Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities rather belatedly imposes an anathema on Northampton over the Sekhemka sale:

Furthermore, Eldamaty called the lovers of Egyptian Civilization all over the world, especially the Egyptians who live in the UK to participate in a serious campaign to buy the statue in order to repatriate it to Egypt.

Umm, I rather think the Egyptian Minister  of Antiquities has seriously not quite got the idea of what the UK export ban is there for....

UPDATE 23.08.2015 Not to be outdone:  Nevine El-Aref, 'Egyptian archaeologist Hawass to launch petition against sale of Sekhemka statue in London' Al Ahram Sunday 23 Aug 2015. "Egyptologist Zahi Hawass is to launch Monday a petition aimed at halting the controversial sale of the 4,500-year-old statue of Smenkare by Northampton Museum. [...] The petition to stop the sale of the 4,500-year-old statue of Sekhemka is to be distributed online on Monday among antiquities lovers, archaeologists and others keen on Egypt's heritage". What is the matter with you people? What part of "sold to that gentleman over there for £15.76m" do you not understand?