Kudos to the University of Pennsylvania Cultural Heritage Center for publishing this list of items missing from the Egyptian Museum and certain archaeological sites. See
http://www.culturalheritagelaw.org/Resources/Documents/Missing%20Egyptian%20Antiquities.pdf
Why the SCA-- turmoil or not-- could not put together its own such list for wide distribution is beyond me.
Addendum (3/15/11): Dorothy King (PhDiva) reports that the SCA has finally published its own list. See http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/pdfs/Objects%20Missing%20from%20the%20Egyptian%20Museum_2011-03-15.pdf I haven't looked at it closely enough to determine whether it was just cribbed from the U. Penn list. In any case, better late than never.
Peter
ReplyDeleteIf you had "looked closely" you would have seen that the SCA's list is larger and more detailed than the Penn list. The latter is just an amplification of the preliminary list of pieces missing from the museum released in February, with photographs (many conjectural, and some incorrect) attached. I imagine one reason that the SCA waited to release the official list was to be certain that they had got everything. Another might be that the situation in the country is still uncertain.
Suggesting that the Cairo Museum simply "cribbed" the Penn list is
1) the precise opposite of the truth, as I am sure the Penn people themselves will tell you.
and 2) a slur on the museum's curators and registrars who put the list together under what one can only imagine have been difficult circumstances.
The photographs in the Cairo list are poor. I have been told that higher resolution ones could not be uploaded to the SCA website, but that official bodies like INTERPOL and UNESCO have been sent better quality ones.