Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities announced on Monday that it has recovered 25 rare artefacts — including sarcophagus lids, a Greco-Roman portrait, and fragments of a temple believed to belong to Queen Hatshepsut — from the United States.
According to the ministry’s statement, the pieces — spanning several centuries of Egyptian civilisation — were returned after a three-year recovery effort led by Egypt’s consulate in New York, in collaboration with the New York District Attorney’s Office and US law enforcement agencies.
Among the recovered items are wooden and gilded sarcophagus lids dating back more than 5,500 years, a Greco-Roman mummy portrait from Fayyoum, and parts of a temple thought to have been built for Queen Hatshepsut.
The collection also includes intricately crafted jewellery from around 2,400 years ago, a granite foot fragment from the Ramesside period, and small figurines made of ivory and stone.
A rare gold coin from the reign of Ptolemy I — a general of Alexander the Great and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty — is also among the retrieved artefacts.
The items had been seized in separate investigations since 2022 and were held at Egypt’s consulate in New York before being returned to Cairo on Sunday.
The ministry did not specify how the artefacts were initially removed from Egypt or how they ended up in the United States. However, such incidents are not unusual.
During the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time leader Hosni Mubarak, widespread looting of museums and archaeological sites occurred, resulting in thousands of stolen antiquities.
Many of these surfaced in private collections or on the international art market. Egyptian officials say they have successfully repatriated nearly 30,000 artefacts over the past ten years.