Egyptian officials said they plan to start legal proceedings to recover Egyptian antiques seized from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of a wide-ranging investigation involving former Louvre museum President-Director Jean-Luc Martinez.
3:27Supreme Court of the State of New York/AFP Photo via GettyEgyptian officials said they plan to start legal proceedings to recover five Egyptian antiques seized from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of a wide-ranging investigation involving former Louvre museum President-Director Jean-Luc Martinez.
The Met bought the items between 2013 and 2015, the newspaper reported. They include a portrait of a woman painted during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero and linen fragments of the Book of Exodus that date back to "the fourth or fifth century." A face from a painted wooden Egyptian coffin dated ca. 945-712 BC, and valued at approximately $6,500.Martinez, who headed the Louvre from 2013 to 2021,in May with complicity and fraud in concealing the origin of antiquities purchased by Met and Louvre Abu Dhabi, according to prosecutors in Paris.
"Regarding the Louvre, we are awaiting the end of investigations to demand the artifacts' return," Hawass added, with other officials saying Egyptian authorities have been following up on the case with their French counterparts since 2020.