Egypt | Cultural Property & Archaeology Law

Browsing All Posts filed under »Egypt«

Reactions to “The Great Giveback”

February 6, 2013

Senior editor at the New York Review of Books, Hugh Eakin, recently published an opinion piece, “The Great Giveback,” in the New York Times. The piece discusses the now commonplace routine of American museums announcing the return of antiquities to foreign countries, based on the respective country’s threats of legal action or other sanctions. Through […]

MET Repatriates Antiquities to Egypt and More on Hawass’ Dismissal

August 3, 2011

Yesterday, I was interviewed by WYNC’s “All Things Considered” radio broadcast on the repatriation of 19 objects from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Egypt, and the recent dismissal of Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs. Listen to the Audio here (at 41:55). Read more in the corresponding article, Metropolitan Museum […]

Is Zahi Hawass Ever NOT In the News?

July 21, 2011

When normal people lose their jobs, they go home, tell their spouses, have a drink, and hope they find work before friends and family catch on. Not Zahi Hawass. As a long-time media darling, he was already positioned for a fantastic, well-publicized fall. With the recent regime change in Egypt, Hawass has gone being a […]

Take an Egyptian Archaeology Course at MSU… For Free!

July 6, 2011

From Boing Boing: Interested in Egyptian archaeology? This summer, you can virtually sit in on a Michigan State University class taught by professor Ethan Watrall. He set the online class up to be completely open access—the public will be able to view and use all course materials. Open access classes aren’t new, but they are […]

Egyptian Court Sentences Zahi Hawass to Jail Time

April 18, 2011

From Aljazeera: Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s ebullient minister for antiquities, has been sentenced to a year in jail after he refused to implement a court decision in a land dispute. The court on Sunday also fined him 10,000 Egyptian pounds (more than $1,600) in damages. Hawass, who has reached international acclaim as an Egyptologist, said he […]

UNESCO Sends Team to Egypt, 81 Objects Missing

March 20, 2011

Egypt’s antiquities ministry has released the final result of the post-revolution inventories, which reveal that 81 archaeological objects are missing from their collections. This includes 27 objects from theTel El-Faraein storehouse and 54 from the national museum in Cairo. Egypt’s former antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, reached out to the international community and asked for help […]

Cultural Property Law on March 9, 2011: Lost Art, Street Art, and Earthquake-Damaged Art

March 9, 2011

A few of interesting articles and posts floating around the internet today on the subject of cultural property and archaeology law: This morning, UNESCO unveiled plans for a museum to commemorate the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas. The Buddhas will not be rebuilt, but their niches will remain empty “as a testimony of the violence that occurred.” […]

18 Items Looted from Egyptian Museum

February 13, 2011

Eighteen days of riots in Egypt has left the Egyptian Museum short of the same number of pieces, with two wooden carvings of Tutankhamun among the missing. AP reports: On Jan. 28, as protesters clashed with police early on in the turmoil and burned down the adjacent headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling party, a handful of […]

Egyptian Museum at Risk of Looting, Collapse

January 29, 2011

Soldiers have entered the Egyptian Museum as looting spreads in Egypt’s capital city of Cairo. The National Democratic Party (NDP), located near the Museum, has already been looted, and gangs have been looting banks, supermarkets, shopping malls, and shops. While nothing has been looted from the Museum so far, objects lay toppled on the ground, and […]

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, Whoa Baby, Let My Relics Go

November 22, 2010

The MET’s agreed to return 19 archaeological objects to Egypt. The arrangement is a victory for Egypt, which had no legal claim to the artifacts, but was demanding their return on ethical grounds. The following NPR spot talks about the repatriation, and whether this means the British Museum will be sending back that Rosetta Stone […]