Overview
- The FBI Los Angeles Field Office formally handed 48 authenticated Egyptian cultural objects to Egyptian representatives in a repatriation ceremony Friday.
- An FBI Art Crime Team investigation found the pieces were illicitly trafficked from Egypt and had no record of lawful removal, and agents say the suspected trafficker is dead but the probe remains open to identify co-conspirators.
- The returned collection includes carved figurines, amulets and tomb equipment from the Pharaonic, Roman and Coptic periods, most of which are thousands of years old.
- The case began after the most recent possessor researched the items’ entry into the United States and reported concerns; provenance was confirmed with help from the State Department, antiquities experts and the FBI legal attache in Cairo.
- The recovery fits a long-running effort by the FBI’s Art Crime Team, which has recovered more than 20,000 items worth over $1 billion, and continues U.S.–Egypt cooperation that has returned thousands of artifacts to Egypt in recent years.