Ritrovata statua rubata durante i saccheggi

La polizia egiziana ha ritrovato la statua della sorella di Tutankhamon saccheggiata durante i disordini causata dai "forconi" egiziani. La statua è stata ritrovata in un bar del Cairo. La statua che necessita di qualche restauro, verrà nuovamente esposta.

 

Cairo, 9 Dec. (AKI) - Police have retrieved a precious statue of ancient Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun’s sister that was stolen from a museum this summer, antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Al-Ahram Online.

Police traced the more than 2,500 year-old limestone figurine to a coffee shop owner in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. A member of an arrested smuggling gang had told police where the figurine was, Ibrahim said on Sunday.

The 32-centimetre-tall statue depicts Ankhesom standing naked and holding an offering in her right hand.

The figurine needs some restoration work but will go on display in a new museum devoted to the family of Tutankamun's father, the Pharaoh Akhenaten, the head of Egypt's museum department, Ahmed Sharaf, was quoted as saying.

Akhenaten's family ruled ancient Egypt around 1,500 BC. The statue of Ahkhesom was stolen from the Mallawi Museum in Upper Egypt during unrest sparked by the army's ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July following mass protests against his rule. Looters broke into the museum and made off with 1,050 artifacts, of which Ibrahim said about 800 had been recovered. The Mallawi museum was one of several ransacked across the country during riots that broke out as the security forces cracked down on Islamist sit-ins in Cairo demanding Morsi's reinstatement.