Category Archives: Egypt

Fifty years on: the meaning of the 1970 UNESCO Convention

Posted on: June 18, 2020 by Alexander Herman

Amidst the sad turmoil (for some) and the uncertainty (for all) brought on by the pandemic and the resultant lockdown, it is perhaps more forgivable than usual to miss an important anniversary. I am referring here to the fact that 2020 marks 50 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting […]

Recent report on the illicit antiquities trade receives mixed response

Posted on: June 10, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn

A UNESCO-backed research project into the illicit trade in cultural property in Germany has recently released its final report. The ‘ILLICID Project’, launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aimed to increase understanding of illicit trafficking networks and financial flows linked to organised crime and terrorism. However, the findings of the final […]

Lessons in Collecting from the Museum of the Bible

Posted on: April 14, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn

The Museum of the Bible has been a site of continual controversy since its opening in November 2017. The issues it has faced range from alleged thefts and forgeries to the illicit trade in antiquities. More than anything else, the Museum’s difficulties have demonstrated the importance of careful provenance research before acquiring artefacts for a […]

To deal or not to deal: provenance and morality in recent sale at Christie’s

Posted on: July 26, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

Earlier this month, controversy surrounded one particular lot in the ‘The Exceptional Sale’ at Christie’s in London. The object of the controversy was ‘An Egyptian Brown Quartzite Head of the God Amen with the features of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen’, dated to the Reign of Tutankhamen, c. 1333-1323 BC, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. The lot (no. 110) […]

The MET in the spotlight again: Due diligence dissected

Posted on: March 20, 2019 by Emily Gould

We reported late last year how busy the New York authorities have been in recent times in seizing and returning looted artefacts. The pattern has continued into the new year, with the widely reported return to the Egyptian Government of a first-century BC gilded coffin, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the centre […]

Access to Art: the good news and the not so good…

Posted on: April 7, 2016 by Emily Gould

Significant developments on three of the stories we’ve been watching closely of late appeared in the news this week: Firstly, that the deferral on an export licence for the Sekhemka Statue has now been lifted, so it will almost certainly be leaving these shores before too long. Secondly, that pieces from the Gurlitt art hoard […]

Sekhemka in the news again

Posted on: March 8, 2016 by Emily Gould

  There is rarely a dull moment in the long-running saga of the Sekhemka statue, the rare Egyptian Old Kingdom sculpture controversially sold by Northampton Borough Council for £15.76 million in 2014. The piece had been displayed at the Northampton Museum and was sold by the Council to raise funds, incurring the wrath of the […]

UK Government extends export ban on Sekhemka statue

Posted on: October 27, 2015 by Alexander Herman

This is a short update on our piece from this summer about the export ban placed on the £15 million Sekhemka statue. While it may have seemed doubtful that a UK entity would be willing (or, more importantly, able) to buy the statue and keep it in the country, there does now appear to be interest in doing so. […]

Northampton and the Sekhemka statue

Posted on: November 14, 2014 by Alexander Herman

Northampton Borough Council, which had earlier this year sold at auction a rare Egyptian statue in its collection for £15.76 million, has been dealt another blow. The 4,000-year-old statue of Sekhemka, an Egyptian Old Kingdom artefact thought to represent a court official and high priest, had originally been bestowed by the Marquess of Northampton sometime […]

Metropolitan Museum buys Egyptian treasure

Posted on: October 7, 2014 by Alexander Herman

As reported last week, an important collection of Egyptian antiquities, the Harageh Treasure, was withdrawn from auction at Bonhams in London, where it had been consigned by the Archaeological Institute of America St Louis Society, with an estimated sale price of £80,000 to £120,000. It has since been revealed that the Treasure had been bought by the […]