INCREDIBLE 3,500-YEAR-OLD STOLEN SCULPTURE TO BE RETURNED TO EGYPT AFTER BEING DISCOVERED IN NETHERLANDS

By the end of this year, the Netherlands will return a 3,500-year-old sculpture to Egypt, according to a statement made by Prime Minister Dick Schoof on November 2. According to a recent inquiry, the Egyptian item was stolen and unlawfully smuggled to the Netherlands, most likely in 2011 or 2012 during the Arab Spring's turmoil.

A senior official from the dynasty of Pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled from 1479 to 1425 BCE, is shown in the stone bust. Schoof claims that in 2022, the “historical cultural treasure [was] confiscated at [the TEFAF] art fair” in Maastricht, where a Swiss gallery was selling it for €190,000 (about $220,000). The dealer willingly turned up the relic for confiscation after an unnamed source informed the authorities of the bust's questionable provenance. A Spanish dealer was arrested and accused of money laundering, smuggling, and document falsification in 2024 after a follow-up investigation linked the raid to him.

In a statement, the Dutch government said, "The Netherlands is dedicated both nationally and internationally to securing the return of heritage to its original owners."

When Schoof visited Giza for the Grand Egyptian Museum's (GEM) official opening, he declared the bust's return. Over the course of its more than two decades of development, GEM has encountered numerous obstacles, including financial problems, logistical challenges, the pandemic, neighbouring conflicts, and several revolutions. About 20,000 of the 100,000 artefacts in the expansive, 120-acre museum, which cost more than $1 billion, have never been seen by the general public. Notably, King Tutankhamun's tomb is also housed at GEM, and for the first time since its initial discovery in 1922, its contents are on full display.

Nevine El-Aref, the Minister of Tourism and Antiques' media assistant, told CBS News that this was Egypt's gift to the world. "The GEM's official and final opening after all these years is a dream come true."

Egyptologists and academics nevertheless expect that GEM's inauguration will spur more repatriation initiatives. Dr Monica Hanna, dean of the Arab Academy of Science and Technology, told the BBC that Egypt should begin formally requesting the return and repatriation of many items that were stolen over the 19th and 20th centuries in honour of the inauguration.

At the centre of this conflict is the Rosetta Stone, one of the most famous relics from ancient Egypt and the key to decoding hieroglyphics. The British Museum in London presently owns the stone.

"Not all Egyptian artefacts should be sent overseas," Hanna explained in the Times. "Those crucial to Egypt's story are what we want."