As Egypt struggles to lay the foundations of a new government in the wake of its revolution, archaeologists around the world are closely watching the fate of the nation’s prized antiquities—as well as the fortunes of Zahi Hawass, long the face and voice of the country’s ancient monuments. Hawass, who under Hosni Mubarak was recently named minister of antiquities, has been confronting an unusual uprising among his own staff as well as questions about his political future. And today, he reported a theft at a cemetery south of Cairo, as well as eight missing artifacts from the Egyptian Museum, located on Tahrir Square itself. Archaeologists are left wondering about the effects of the revolution on the dozens of excavations in the country, as well as on the next generation of homegrown researchers.

sciencemag.org

A group of Egyptian citizens have filed a complaint to the office of the attorney-general demanding the cancelation of a preacher’s television program after he issued a fatwa (a religious edict) on the sale of antiquities.

Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, a prominent preacher, currently presents a program which is aired live, features inquiries via phone calls and he answers them on the spot.

In response to a telephone call regarding Islam’s position on selling antiquities, Hassan said, “If it is found on land that you own, or in your house, then it is yours by right and you are not doing anything wrong.” As for antiquities which are found on a public land, Hassan explained, a Muslim is prohibited from selling them, advising that he should re-bury them.

The people who filed the complaint argue that this fatwa means that all antiquities discovered on private land are the possessions of the owner of that land, and that he has the right to sell and profit from them. This contradicts the law, which punishes any private circulation of antiquities.

They argue that the fatwa poses a serious threat to Egyptian history and its national heritage.

Al Masry Al Youm

The Ruhr Museum in Essen in the west of Germany has now assembled a show entitled, The Great Game: Archaeology and Politics in the Colonial Period. It takes a look at the treasure-hunting era before archaeology settled down to become just another academic subject.

Charlotte Truempler, head of the archaeology department of the new museum, which was inaugurated a month ago, said it was the first show she knew of that had looked at the political implications of turn-of- the-century archaeology.

Some of the 800 artefacts, photographs and films have never been seen in public before. The bust of Nefertiti is represented by a replica made in 1913 for Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The exhibition will continue until June 13.

Earth Times

The People’s Assembly amended Egypt’s antiquities law on Monday to bring in stiffer punishments for the theft and smuggling of relics while granting patent rights to the country’s antiquities council.

The sale of antiquities is still banned and Egyptians who have antiquities must report their possessions to the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Relics can in the future only be given as a gift with the council’s authorization. They may also be passed on as part of an inheritance.

The new law increases prison sentences for smuggling artifacts out of Egypt to 15 years and a fine of LE 1 million. The penalty for stealing artifacts has been doubled to 10 years.

It also increases the punishment for tampering with antiquity sites to five years in jail, while a new provision gives patent rights to the antiquities council on precise replicas of antiquities that are certified by the council.

Google News

Nebraska State Treasurer Shane Osborn has seen a lot of odd unclaimed property.

But this year the surprise was ancient artifacts, and they’ve set a precedent, Osborn said. A Pharaoh mask from 2,500 B.C., ancient Roman clay jars, daggers from Phonecia, pottery from Greece and hunting spears from Africa comprise the true treasure trove this year.

The collection was turned in to the state by a Lincoln bank.

The box belonged to a former Nebraska collector and antique dealer who is now living in a hotel and on food stamps, Osborn said.

Conservative estimates put the collection’s value at $200,000.

The owner wished to remain anonymous. He said his antique dealership went bankrupt a few years ago.

KETV

The collection of Egyptian art was purchased by the Venezuelan state through the Museum of Fine Arts from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The collection of China pottery was donated to the MFA by Henrique Otero Vizcarrondo and the African art collection was donated to the Museum of Science.

At the meeting, Rodriguez had circulated an unsigned working paper that read: “Let’s remove from the princes of capitalism the concept of culture as an aesthetic fact. Only then will they be able to value the manifestations that have significance and pertinence to the people from every village, every hamlet and every neighborhood of our cities (…) Those princes insist that art museums have been abandoned. To them we say: The museums are not in danger, neither the works they contain. They have have simply ceased to be the referents of national culture and thus they will lose the sacred character they now enjoy. ”

An official of the National Museums Foundation, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said: “The measure is serious because it is attacking a heritage that has served as a formation tool for several generations of Venezuelans who can not only acquire knowledge of the artistic sense of the men and women of those places in the world but also of their history, especially their culture. The collections are central to a museum and this threat poses a dismantling of the museums. It’s not the wrong idea to reach the community and relate them to the arts, but there is a confusion that becomes unhealthy: a work of art is not just an aesthetic fact, it transmits knowledge. It is not only a matter of looking at a beautiful dish, but to learn the Chinese culture through this china plate, learn from the Egyptian culture through the codes in their hieroglyphics, which we can see directly, and learn African culture and its relationship to our culture through one of those masks.”

Milagros Gonzalez, who recently resigned from her post as curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, said the Egyptian art collection is valuable on this side of the sea, but certainly not for Egypt.

“The Cairo Museum is after foremost works, like the bust of Nefertiti, but the pieces in this collection are very poor compared to theirs, which also happen to be crammed in their exhibition spaces. This collection is important to this side of the world and makes more sense being here. The same goes to the Chinese ceramic collection, which has only items that were made in that nation to be sold to the West, so I doubt that they, with all their heritage, would be really interested in having this modest collection. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is that China wanted to be seen by the West through these pottery.”

Translated from Amigos de la Egiptología

When security officials opened the case, they found two mummies of a cat and an ibis, a long-beaked bird, both dating back to 300 B.C. The confiscated collection also included 19 figurines of the revered ancient Egyptian gods of Horus and Thoth, wrapped as gifts.

The man was arrested and has been charged with smuggling antiquities, which can carry a penalty of as much as 15 years. An antiquity official at the airport described the bust as rare because of the number of items involved and the age of the items.

Meanwhile, another unlucky traveler in Cairo’s airport was stopped Wednesday with 56 cartridges, 20 pieces of live ammunition and an old bayonet that dates back to World War II. He told the authorities he picked up the ammunition in the Egyptian north coast town El Alamein, the site of one of the most decisive battles in World War II. The Canadian passenger, who was heading to Switzerland and was let free, said he was unaware transporting the ammunition would be illegal.

AP

Around 1890, the brewing magnate, Carl Jacobsen, founder of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, engaged Denmark’s leading Egyptologist, Valdemar Schmidt, to create an Egyptian collection in the newly-planned museum, and in the course of the following 35 years, Schmidt succeeded in putting together a collection of ancient Egyptian art matching Jacobsen’s other excellent collections of ancient art, from Greece, Etruria and the Roman Empire.

This exhibition is an opportunity to see the works which Schmidt brought back to Denmark from his extensive travels in Egypt. Other works on display come from excavations in that country which Schmidt persuaded the wealthy Jacobsen to sponsor.

Today it would be quite impossible to create a comparable collection, but Schmidt and Jacobsen lived in an age when the Egyptian authorities still permitted a limited, controlled export of antiquities. As a result, the Glyptotek today can present an Egyptian collection of truly international standing.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is an art museum of international stature in the center of Copenhagen. It houses over 10.000 works of art divided up into two principal collections: Mediterranean cradle of Western culture and Danish and French art from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Glypkotek