Egypt Asks for Loans of Artifacts Held Abroad
by
John Roach
Egypt will request temporary loans of some of its most cherished artifacts currently on display at museums abroad, antiquities officials announced on Sunday.
The requested items include the famous bust of Nefertiti currently at the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany, and the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London.
Nefertiti's bust
Most of the items are meant for display at the 2012 opening of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, which is being built near the pyramids at Giza (see a map of Egypt).
Nefertiti's bust is requested for display at the Atun Museum, which is set to open in the Nile Delta city of Meniya in 2010, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced in a statement.
All five of the artifacts are on a list of unique items that Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's antiquities council, has said should be returned permanently to their homeland.
But in an email to National Geographic News, Hawass said that the antiquities council will request a letter of guarantee from the Egyptian government "that will secure the safe return of these objects to the lending institutions."
"We are not 'Pirates of the Caribbean,'" he added. "We respect our contacts. We are in the 21st century."
The recent statement from the Egyptian antiquities council called the requests a "diplomatic move."
