In ‘great diplomatic success,’ Germany returns ancient mural painting to Egypt

Germany is returning a 3,400-year-old artifact to Egypt that was stolen from the country sometime in the last century, the Ministry of Antiquities announced on Tuesday.

The artifact in question, a fragment of a mural painting, dates from the reign of Pharaoh Thuthmose IV, who ruled Egypt in the 14th century BC. The fragment was reportedly cut out from the walls of the Sobek Hotep cemetery in Thebes — modern-day Luxor — and then smuggled to Germany.

Measuring 30 cm by 40 cm and depicting subjects presenting royal offerings, the painting was on display at the Rheinische Fridrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn for three weeks until it was spotted by an employee of Egypt’s Artifacts Recovery Unit, according to the Antiquity Ministry’s Facebook page.

Officials from this unit are reported to have met with the German couple who acquired the piece and placed it on display. When the couple was informed that it had been illegally smuggled out of Egypt, they reportedly agreed to hand over the ancient artifact.

The ministry’s page said that the artifact was transported to the Egyptian Embassy in Berlin in mid-July, and is being handed over to the Foreign Ministry’s Cultural Relations Administration in Cairo. From there, it is due to be put on display at the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

The ministry’s page described the recovery effort as “a great diplomatic success.”