Lebanon returns 37 artefacts smuggled out of Egypt six years ago

What the report says

Lebanon has returned 37 artefacts to Egypt after authorities determined the items had been smuggled out of the country six years ago, according to Al Jazeera. The handover took place at the National Museum of Beirut in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday, with Lebanon’s Culture Minister Ghassan Salame presenting the objects to Egypt’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Alaa Moussa.

The collection includes masks, wooden dolls, Coptic textiles, glass-paste amulets, small statues and two decorated wooden coffins. Al Jazeera reported that the pieces date to Egypt’s pharaonic civilisation, and that Lebanese officials worked with INTERPOL, Egypt and the country’s top public prosecutor to confirm the items’ ownership and authenticity. The artefacts were seized from the Port of Beirut in 2020.

Salame said the items were identified as belonging to Egypt after an investigation into their ownership. Lebanon’s National News Agency also quoted him as saying the return demonstrates strict application of the 1970 international convention against illicit trafficking in cultural property. An official from Lebanon’s Directorate General of Antiquities said the artefacts had been bought by a Lebanese national without documentation showing their origin.

The case fits a broader pattern of cross-border efforts to recover looted antiquities from Egypt, which regularly faces trafficking of ancient objects. Al Jazeera also noted recent recoveries of Egyptian artefacts abroad, including a separate return from the United States and a mask recovered in Switzerland.