Switzerland on Tuesday returned to Egypt the fragment of a more than 3,400-year-old statue of Pharaoh Ramses II, stolen from a temple in Abydos decades ago.
The director of the Federal Department for Culture (OFC), Carine Bachmann, delivered this “important archaeological asset” to the Egyptian embassy in Bern on Monday, revealed in a statement.
The stone carving of Pharaoh Ramses II, to which the returned fragment belongs, shows the king seated next to several Egyptian deities, according to the OFC.
Ramesses II, who ascended the throne at the age of 25 to succeed his father Seti I, ruled Egypt for about 66 years, the longest reign in Egyptian history.
The returned fragment was stolen from the Temple of Ramses II in Abydos, Egypt, between the late 1980s and early 1990s and transported through several countries before arriving in Switzerland, where it was eventually confiscated by the authorities of the Canton of Geneva after a criminal case was taken. .
“This return reinforces the joint commitment of Switzerland and Egypt to combat the illicit trade in cultural goods, reinforced in 2011 by the entry into force of a bilateral agreement on the import and return of cultural goods,” the OFC said.
Both Switzerland and Egypt are parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention ‘Prohibition and Prevention of the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property’.
Source: DN
