It seems there are no limits to which collectors of and dealers in portable antiquities will not go to fill their pockets. On May 25th, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized ancient Egyptian mummy linens during inspection of a vehicle crossing the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan ('Ancient Egyptian mummy linens seized at US-Canada border' USA Today June 26, 2019)
A Canadian mail truck was selected for an enforcement examination at the Customs and Border Protection station in Michigan. During the inspection a package included five jars of ancient Egyptian mummy linen, according to a Customs and Border Protection news release. CBP began to coordinate with a Washington, D.C.-based archaeological organization in determining the admissibility of the presumed antiquities. The seized artifacts are believed to be from the Ptolemaic Dynasty 305-30 B.C. and the importer was unable to prove that the artifacts were removed from Egypt prior to April 2016, which is in violation of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act.The place of mummy linens is on the mummies which were piously wrapped in them. Not in a selfish US collector's self aggrandizing curios display.
It is believed that no brown-skinned children were harmed in this US Border Control operation.
Vignette: even in the Victorian period... gratuitous mummy unwrapping lost favour with the elite, as the preservation of the past overtook ghoulishness in popularity. Not in 'modern' collecting circles it seems.
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