CAIRO, EGYPT—According to an Ahram Online report, New York City's Metropolitan Museum handed over an ancient gilded coffin to the Antiquities Repatriation Department at Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities after an investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office concluded it had left Egypt illegally and should be returned. The museum purchased the coffin, which belonged to Nedjemankh, a priest of the ram-god Heryshef of Herakleopolis, from an antiquities dealer who held a 1971 export license. (Egypt allowed the export of some antiquities prior to the passage of the Antiquities Protection Law of 1983.) However, the Egyptian government produced evidence showing that the dealer’s export license had been forged in this case. To read in-depth about excavations at Heliopolis, go to “Egypt's Eternal City.”
