Egypt received this week a group of pottery artefacts that Dutch authorities confirmed had been taken out of the country without export permits. The Dutch National Museum returned the pieces - star-incised vessels, several globular forms, and a knife-shaped object - covering periods that included the Late Period, according to Daily News Egypt.
“A step that confirms the mutual keenness to protect human and civilizational heritage, and support efforts to preserve and protect antiquities,” said Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy as the shipment landed in Cairo.
The handover was arranged by an Egyptian interagency team set up to curb illicit trafficking. Shaaban Abdel Gawad, head of the Antiquities Repatriation Department, said the mix of shapes and star patterns “reflects the variety of arts and innovations in ancient Egypt.”
Although no formal restitution treaty exists between the two countries, Dutch officials agreed to return the items once provenance checks showed they lacked proper documentation. Egyptian authorities said they were holding similar talks in other jurisdictions.
The pottery’s return followed recent recoveries from Germany and Britain and an earlier Dutch return in August 2024. The ministry said it had brought home more than 30,000 objects since 2014.
Recovered items over recent months also included a mummy head from the Hellenistic era (170–45 BCE), fragments of a wooden coffin carved with Isis from Dynasty 26 or 27 (663–504 BCE), and a blue faience ushabti bearing the name Abitahmus dated to Dynasties 26–30 (664–332 BCE). Officials said each retrieval chipped away at a record built through decades of clandestine digging and trade.
Archaeologist Hussein Abdel Bassir stated that antiquities return agreements already signed with the United States, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain pointed to “an increasing global awareness of the necessity of combating crimes of illicit trafficking in cultural properties.”
Abdel Bassir cautioned that smuggling rings still exploit remote sites, and the series of successes showed both “the extent of what was looted and stolen over long decades” and the state’s determination to pursue every piece.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.