Scholars Recognize Egyptian Artifact Up for Auction

LONDON, ENGLAND—Marcel Marée of the British Museum, and Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, who has excavated the Amenhotep III mortuary temple in Luxor, identified the provenance of a fragment of a relief depicting a Nubian captive that was scheduled to be auctioned at Christie’s. Marée spotted the relief in an auction catalog and contacted Sourouzian. Her database search confirmed that the fragment was discovered in the mortuary temple of King Amenhotep III in 2000. Christie’s had been told that the fragment and five other pieces offered for sale with it had been purchased by a private collector in the 1940s. “One important measure that would help bring criminals to justice is the systematic photography of every piece that is kept in storerooms, and these photos should be stored somewhere central,” said Marée.