Background:

Fārūq Ḥusnī was Minister of Culture in Egypt from 1987 to 2011. During his tenure, he expanded state-run exhibition spaces and initiated a number of cultural programmes such as the Gezira Arts Centre, Alexandria Centre of Arts, the Cairo History Rehabilitation Project (which included a number of Jewish synagogues) and so on. Ḥusnī was invited to comment on a plundering of Egyptian antiquities in 1995.

There were reports of antiquity theft and Cornelis Hulsman amongst other members of the FPA asked the Minister of Culture, if anyone had been arrested for the crime. Ḥusnī supposed that it was not a rumour and that there are many inspectors taking a look at the site where the antiquities were stolen from. The investigation is in full process and the suspects are under examination as well. Ḥusnī speaks of potentially increasing the punishment for theft of Egyptian antiquities in an attempt to decrease the number of reported plundering incidents.

Furthermore, Ḥusnī believes that despite the many historic artefacts located in Egyptian museums, there are still many of which are abroad, but belong to Egypt. In England, there are many Egyptian artefacts and in France, there was a reported theft of the statue of Amun. The statue had been on sale on the black market, but a professor who was working on an exhibition site discovered it and brought it to Interpol’s attention. It was later returned. Ḥusnī pronounces that many museums across the world, including London, Berlin and Italy, hold collections of Egyptian antiquities. The Minister of Culture stresses the return of the main artefacts, including Nefertiti from Berlin and Rosetta Stone from London.