Egypt receives sarcophagus lid smuggled to Kuwait
Ashraf Abo Arafe
The Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait received on Monday 8/10/2018 a wooden coffin lid that was smuggled to Kuwait in March.
Officials at the Egyptian Embassy said shipping measures are currently underway to send the artifact to Cairo as it will be delivered to the restored antiquities department at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
Egyptian Ambassador in Kuwait Tareq el Qouni thanked the Kuwaiti authorities including the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry, the Antiquities Department, the Customs Authority and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters of Kuwait (NCCAL) over their full cooperation in restoring the smuggled coffin lid.
A coffin lid artifact was smuggled to Kuwait in March from Egypt and was discovered hidden in a sofa that was shipped by a certified shipping company. Officers at the Kuwait Airways cargo terminal discovered the artifact as they were scanning the shipment.
The antique dates back to Pharaonic times and is 170 cm long. The statue is in the figure of a woman wearing an elaborate headdress and was carved from stone.