A civil lawsuit will be filed against the sale of the ancient statue at an auction by Egypt. The stone head that resembles Pharaoh Tutankhamun was sold at a London auction on July 4 for $5.97 million. The sale was put through despite the concerns and protests by Cairo that the relic might have been stolen.
After the sale of the statue, the National Committees for Retrieving Antiquities said that they would be assigning a British law firm to file a civil lawsuit and take all necessary legal actions. The committee later expressed that British authorities have failed to provide the support that was expected from them.
The 11-inch statue of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was sold by Christie’s auction house, and the identity of the buyer was secret. The sale had instead been highly controversial to the Egyptian authorities. They demanded the auction be canceled and called for the relic’s repatriation.
The Ex. Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs Zahi Hawass, told the authorities that they believed the relic had left Egypt illegally. On the day of sale, he said that he found that the relic was taken from Egypt’s Karnak temple after 1970.
The complete verification at the Christie’s auction house:
In a Media Release for the auction, Christie’s said the statue was Obtained from Munich-based dealer Heinz Herzer in 1985 and was Formerly owned by Joseph Messina, Prinz Wilhelm von Thurn und Taxis.
Christie’s moved to assuage worries over the possession of the statue, saying that while historical objects by their nature can’t be tracked over millennia, Christie’s has carried out comprehensive due diligence verifying the origin and legal name of this item. Christie’s wouldn’t and don’t sell any function where there is not a clear title of ownership along with a comprehensive comprehension of modern provenance. The auction house included in a statement to CNN. A speaker of Christie’s told CNN that the auction house hadn’t been notified of any other claim of the relic.
This relic must be in a museum, not to be in a darkened room of a wealthy guy, Hawass added. In June, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities appealed to Christie’s and UNESCO to stop the sale and asked to find documents demonstrating the product’s provenance, according to a statement from the ministry. Other officials from the Egyptian embassy in London asked the return of the relic to the UK Foreign Office.
They will not be negligent or allow anyone to market any Egyptian artifact at all, said Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities in a statement published in June. On July 3, the embassy stated in a statement that they regret their decision to go ahead with the auction.
According to Christie’s, the relic is a striking representation of the youthful king – Tutankhamun. After getting pharaoh at the age of 9, Tutankhamun reigned until his death at the age of 19, and he lived from around 1333 BC until about 1323 BC. His tomb, in the Valley of Kings across the Nile River from Luxor, is famous for being discovered relatively intact, containing thousands of impressive relics and artifacts.
