[CPProt.net] Egypt may halt digs if artifacts not returned

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Egypt may halt digs if artifacts not returned 
July 18, 2005
BY JAMIE TARABAY 
 
CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt demanded that institutions in Britain and Belgium
return two pharaonic reliefs it says were chipped off tombs and stolen 30
years ago, threatening Sunday to end their archeological work here if they
refuse.

The 4,400-year-old reliefs, taken from two tombs uncovered in 1965, are at
the Fitzwilliam Museum in Britain and the Catholic University of Brussels. A
request has been sent to both seeking their return, Culture Minister Farouq
Hosni said in a statement.

The demand was the latest in a series of attempts by Egypt to recover
ancient treasures that were taken out of the country, either through theft
or what the Egyptians have termed ''imperialism.'' 

Send Nefertiti bust, too

Wednesday, Egypt said it had approached UNESCO to intervene on its behalf to
lobby for the return of the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, the bust of
Nefertiti at Berlin's Egyptian Museum and three other artifacts.

Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of
Antiquities, said he would cut off the Catholic University's excavation
mission at a site in Deir al-Barsha, near the southern town of Minya, if the
reliefs were not returned, and would suspend the Fitzwilliam Museum's
''scientific relationship'' with archeologists working here if the British
institution did not cooperate.

'We need our history'

''We are not afraid of anything, anyone who makes a mistake should be
punished. This is history. We need our history, and anyone who steals our
artifacts has no place in Egypt,'' Hawass said.

The Fitzwilliam Museum said no one could comment Sunday. There was also no
comment from the Catholic University.

The reliefs came from two tombs uncovered in 1965 in a necropolis next to
the Stepped Pyramid at Saqqara, outside Cairo.

A third relief was returned to Egypt from the Royal Museum of Art and
History in Brussels last month after Egypt's antiquities council put on hold
a request by the museum to extend its excavation work, the statement said.
With the return, the council has agreed to allow the work to continue. 

AP