In a continued effort to safeguard Egypt’s cultural heritage and accelerate the recovery of antiquities that left the country through illicit means, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities—represented by the Supreme Council of Antiquities—has received 21 ancient Egyptian artifacts repatriated from Australia.
The pieces arrived from Canberra and were officially handed over today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs. This milestone was achieved in close cooperation with the relevant Egyptian and Australian authorities.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Mr. Sherif Fathy, praised the fruitful cooperation between his ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigration, describing it as central to this successful repatriation. He emphasized that this initiative underscores Egypt’s unwavering commitment—across all state institutions—to protecting its unique cultural legacy.
The repatriation coincides with the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Australia, a symbolic moment reflecting the depth of bilateral ties and shared commitment to heritage protection. Both nations have reaffirmed their stance against the illicit trafficking of cultural property and their adherence to international conventions governing cultural repatriation.
Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, noted that the artifacts were handed over at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by a council delegation led by Mr. Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, Director-General of the Department for Repatriated Antiquities and supervisor of the Central Administration for Archaeological Ports.
He added that the artifacts had appeared in a well-known auction house in Australia. Upon verifying the lack of legal ownership documents, the auction house cooperated with the Egyptian Embassy in Canberra to initiate their return. The recovered items span various periods of ancient Egyptian history and include a small ushabti figurine, a wooden anthropoid coffin fragment in the form of a human hand, a carved wooden serpent head, a terracotta oil lamp, ivory spindles, a wedjat eye amulet, and a piece of Coptic textile.
Mr. Shaaban Abdel-Gawad further revealed that among the recovered items is a fragment of a limestone stela belonging to an individual named Seshenefertem. This piece had been handed over to the Egyptian Consulate General in Sydney. The stela was originally discovered by an Italian archaeological mission and was broken into four parts, some of which went missing during an inventory in 1995. Three fragments were repatriated from Switzerland in 2017, while the fourth was recently returned by Macquarie University Museum in Australia, following confirmation of its association with the same monument.
All recovered artifacts have now been deposited at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, where they will undergo restoration before being featured in a temporary exhibition celebrating their return.
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