Wednesday, May 23, 2007

El juez retiene piezas del Museu Egipci

This item follows on from a story on the International Herald Tribune which described allegations that the Barcelona museum of Egyptology may have an item on display that was removed from Egypt illegally.
"El juez Emili Soler Calucho ha acordado la retención de diversas arqueológicas del Museu Egipci de Barcelona durante un plazo de tres meses hasta que el Gobierno egipcio acredite si reclama esas obras. A la vez, el magistrado ha reiterado que no existe un presunto delito de contrabando, como denunció una egiptóloga, y ha vuelto a sobreseer el procedimiento penal. . . . Fuentes de la Fundació Clos-Museu Egipci reiteraron ayer que las piezas fueron adquiridas legalmente y que no existe ningún dato que demuestre que pudieran salir ilegalmente de Egipto."
See the above page for the full story, originally reported in El Periodico.

Rough translation: A judge has ordered that a number of items from the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Barcelona should be retained for a period of three months until the Egyptian government have investigated whether they wish to demand the return of the items in question. At the same time, the magistrate has reiterated that at the moment there is no reason to presume that the items were smuggled as has been claimed by an Egyptologist. Representatives of the Foundation Clos-Museu Egipci repeated yesterday that the artefacts were aquired legally and that there is no evidence to demonstrate that they were taken from Egypt illegaly.

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