Sunday 20 March 2011

Stolen ancient Egyptian statues recovered - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online

Mansour Boraik just confirmed for me the future plans for site security. Obviously this is more about night time than day time.

1) The guardians are going to be armed
2) They are increasing the number of guardians
3) They have moved some objects to more secure areas
4) There will be more security on site
5) Knowledge that offenders will be tried by a military court will deter thefts.
6) There are some other things happening which he would rather not reveal

He reminded me that Luxor was the only place that had not had thefts until and he was proud of that. He was also determined that this would not happen again. He was using two weapons, people will hear the consequences of what happened to this thief’s they will be deterred and increased security. The people arrested were well know thieves and quickly identified and captured. Within 24 hours Hourig had identified and seen the recovered objects. This incident does not reflect any aspect of tourist safety.

I told him I am proud of the actions of the SCA in Luxor, I saw how hard everyone was working to recover the objects and how seriously they took it. I and others were also impressed by the openness and transparency in letting us know exactly what had gone missing and the details. I was sure everyone was so pleased that the objects had been recovered so quickly.

Here is a news article about the recovery
Stolen ancient Egyptian statues recovered - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online: "Within 24 hours the Antiquities and Tourism Police, in collaboration with the Military Police Forces, succeeded in retrieving the two ancient Egyptian statues stolen yesterday from a warehouse on Luxor’s West Bank.

The statues were found hidden inside the home of Ahmed El Zot, the head of an armed gang, who is infamous for his dishonesty. Three other members of the gang are also in custody.

Mansour Boreik, supervisor of Luxor’s monuments, relates that last night an armed gang attacked the warehouse of the European/Egyptian excavation mission of Amenhotep III’s temple. The gang members gave the guards anaesthetic shots, tied them up and entered the warehouse with ease. They stole a bust of the lioness god, Sekhmet, deity of war and another granite statue of an ancient Egyptian god. They also broke several while escaping with the goods.

Boreik said that the police came onto the site immediately and with comprehensive investigations succeeded in catching the head of the gang and three other members.

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