IN rebuilding Egypt’s arrivals post-protests, the government is grappling with another costly problem: damaged and stolen artefacts from historical sites, the bread and butter of its tourism industry.
During weeks of political upheaval starting late January, Cairo’s popular Egyptian Museum, site of the ancient city of Buto and at least 10 other locations across the country were looted, according to Singapore’s The Straits Times last Friday.
“This is the worst looting I have ever seen,” Dr Mohammed Abdel Maqsoud, a senior official of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, was quoted as saying.
The newspaper reported that at the height of the upheaval, the government withdrew the police force, a move largely seen as an attempt to foster lawlessness. This left the country’s antiquities vulnerable.
The police have returned to some sites in Cairo’s vicinity, but many of the country’s 40 major antiquities depots and 2,000 active excavation sites continue to face a security vacuum. While some objects from the Egyptian Museum have been recovered, 42 items remain missing.
