From Al-Ahram Weekly by Nevine El-Aref (Link to original article)
The Ministry of Culture and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) have been at the forefront of a campaign since 2002 to stamp out the trade in artifacts illegally smuggled from Egypt and bring them back home. To put the campaign into effect, the SCA has created a new department in its administrative body, the National Committee to Return Smuggled Antiquities (NCRSA), to list all the objects that have been illegally smuggled out of the country together with those missing from archaeological storehouses and museums. It also traces all reports provided by Egypt’s embassies and consulates abroad of possible infringements of the antiquities law, and from time to time it checks the sale catalogues of well known auction houses such as Bonhams and Christies.
The report goes on to mention an “outreach” programme, aimed at education Egyptians about the issue of antiquities smuggling, as well as hoping to engage Egyptians more with their own history:
On the local level, the NCRSA will raise the awareness of Egyptians for their heritage and its importance through history. This will be implemented through establishing seminars and open discussions highlighting such subjects, as well as organising a touring archaeological exhibition to visit towns in Egypt and publishing a periodical newsletter.
Despite the efforts vested in trying to persuade foreign countries to co-operate in the tracing down and return of stolen artefact’s, it is these local activities that have the potential to really make an effective impact on antiquities smuggling and theft. At the present there is little awareness of the harm of this trade amongst the bulk of the Egyptian public. Education and, for want of a less annoying word, “outreach”, is the order of the day on the part of the SCA.
However, though I’d dearly love to be optimistic about this matter, at the end of the day as long as the average Egyptian earns, if he is lucky, a twentieth of what an average western European or American does, and as a long as said western European or American is willing to part with a thick wodge of that money to own a “little bit of Ancient Egypt”, then it’s going to be a very hard trade to stop.
Hard cash is mighty tempting to a man with a hungry household, regardless of how honest and educated he may be. I’d like to believe this will work, but as long as poverty remains the norm in Egypt, her past will always be at risk, and from more than just theft.
