One of the largest wooden pharaonic sarcophagi ever discovered, illegally removed from Egypt and until recently displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, has been returned to Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri announced.
The 2.94-metre-long, 90-centimetre-wide sarcophagus, with a green painted face, dates back to the Late Pharaonic period some 2,700 years ago and was discovered in central Egypt. It had been looted and arrived in the United States via Germany in 2008, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg.
In a decade, Cairo has managed to recover more than 29,000 pieces of stolen antiquities that were then sold outside Egypt.
Photo: Mostafa Waziri, a senior official of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, looks through a magnifying glass at an ancient wooden sarcophagus during a handover ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 2, 2023. Copyrights: AP Photo / Mohamed Salah.