More lazy journalism on Egyptian antiquities, this time from Reuters and the Chicago Tribune. Egyptian antiquities have been widely and legally collected since at least the 19th c. and were also widely and legally collected in Egypt itself, until the Mubarak regime declared them state property in 1983. Many artifacts, particularly those of limited value, have no documentary history, let alone absolute proof that they left Egypt legally before that date. Yet, no one seems to question this assertion from one of the bureaucrats serving Egypt's military dictatorship:
[A]nyone seeking to sell an artifact of Egyptian origin should be required to produce a document showing it was lawfully exported from Egypt, whose laws permitted the trade in antiquities until 1983, when all such trade was banned.
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What else do you expect from Reuters? It's for casual observers, and not those who know what's going on - they, don't need Reuters!!!!
The Egyptian administration is corrupt -- it's always been thus. Does it REALLY matter that artifacts are being removed by poor people in an attempt to improve their lot?
We know more about the ancient Egyptians today, than they knew about themselves.
It's bizarre, though unsurprising, that some well-fed academics in the West who've never known starvation, accuse those on the breadline of 'looting' -- more accurately perhaps, liberating -- so-called artifacts.
Best regards
John Howland
England
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