Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt’s Antiquities Minister, revealed Wednesday that 12 stolen artifacts would be returned to his country from London.
According to a local paper, the artifacts were smuggled out of Egypt after the 25 January, 2011, revolution.
A court in London was said to have ordered the return of the artifacts.
“We will claim any smuggled artifact because we must preserve our heritage,” the minister was quoted as saying.
“The verdict is the first of its kind in the history of British courts,” the minister said, adding: “The court also fined the possessor 12,000 pound sterlings and convicted him of embezzlement and forging documents that prove his ownership.”
The Egyptian embassy in London was said to have already received the artifacts.
