[MSN] An American Army helicopter pilot has been charged with handling ancient Egyptian artifacts looted from a museum near Cairo in 2002.

[MSN]

US pilot charged over looted artifacts
Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:09:26


An American Army helicopter pilot has been charged with handling ancient
Egyptian artifacts looted from a museum near Cairo in 2002.

Edward George Johnson, who was deployed to Egypt in 2002, is accused of
selling around 80 artifacts that were among some 370 pre-dynastic
antiquities stolen from the Ma'adi Museum near Cairo in September that year,
New York prosecutors said, Wednesday.

The artifacts, including amphorae and pottery dating to 3000 B.C. and
earlier, were originally discovered during excavations in the 1920s and
1930s.

Johnson, an attack- and scout-helicopter pilot and commander, allegedly
contacted a Texas art dealer in 2003 saying the antiquities had been
acquired by his grandfather while working in Egypt in the 1930s and 1940s.

The dealer paid around 20,000 dollars for the 80 pieces, which were later
consigned to galleries and collectors in New York, London, Zurich, and
Montreal, the prosecutors said.

If convicted, Johnson faces up to 15 years in jail for transportation of
stolen property and wire fraud.

MRI/RA