Friday, 22 February 2019

Fourth Fragment of Stolen Relief Recovered


The last of four pieces of an ancient relief that had been smuggled out of Egypt in the 1990s has been recovered. It was a fragment of a stele belonging to a top official called Seshen Nefertum. (Nevine El-Aref , 'Last piece of stolen ancient Egyptian relief recovered from Australia: Ministry' Al Ahram Thursday 21 Feb 2019)
The relief was initially discovered in four parts during excavations carried out by an Italian mission in El-Assasif necropolis on Luxor’s West Bank between 1976 and 1988. In 1995 [...] the ministry discovered its disappearance while carrying out an inventory at Al-Gorna’s antiquities storehouse. Three of the relief's pieces were repatriated from Switzerland in 2017, and the fourth was found at Macquarie Museum in Australia.
The tomb is TT27 (Porter and Moss, Topographical Bibliography: The Theban Necropolis, pg 43-45)  It is rather interesting to note that the earlier repatriation of the other three fragments (and who was in their possession in Switzerland) seems to have received little, or no, publicity. And which dealer did the McQuarrie Museum get the item from?

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