Egypt is certainly one of the cradles of civilization and a place whose history has created a unique atmosphere of this place. Pyramids, tombs and countless smaller and larger monuments are today a priceless achievement of the local civilization.
It is no secret that many Egyptian goods were looted and have not returned to their homeland to this day. However, there are also successes.
After 30 years, the statue of King Ramses II, which was found in Switzerland, returned to Egypt.
The statue is currently in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but is not on display. As the ministry said in a statement, the monument will be renovated.
The statue was stolen from the temple of Ramesses II, located in Abydos in southern Egypt, over thirty years ago. Shaaban Abdel Gawad, head of Egypt's antiquities repatriation department, said the work was estimated to have been stolen in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Egyptian authorities noticed the artifact when it was put up for sale at an exhibition in London in 2013. According to the Ministry of Antiquities, the artifact's path led through several countries until it finally reached Switzerland.
The 3,400-year-old sculpture depicting the face of the pharaoh was finally legally recovered and returned to Egypt, where it is possible that it will soon be officially displayed in a museum.
“This head sculpture belongs to a group of statues depicting King Ramesses II seated next to several Egyptian deities,” Abdel Gawad said in a statement.