Repatriation
When I discuss repatriation (the returning of artifacts to their home country) many people think that I believe that every Egyptian artifact belongs in Egypt, but that is not true. I have created this petition that you can sign so that unique objects and those that were taken out of Egypt illegally can be returned. The specific objects I am fighting for are The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, the Dendera Zodiac in le Louvre, and the bust of Nefertiti in the Staatliche Museeen zu Berlin. These are unique artifacts with whose significance to Egyptian history have no parallel. Moreover, their removal from Egypt was done illicitly.
When artifacts are removed from Egypt illegally and sold this only encourages and emboldens thieves. I am sorry to say that museums that continue to display these artifacts and refuse to return them only continue to participate in imperialism and cannot be believed when they denounce it. For the Egyptian government to petition foreign governments for the return of the artifacts there has to be enough public interest, which is why I started this petition. I am so happy more than 200,000 people have already signed this petition. I ask for you to sign this and share it with everyone you know. I would like to get one million signatures so we can formally petition for the return of these artifacts. We need your help.
The Bust of Nefertiti
The Bust of Nefertiti was brazenly stolen from Egypt by the Germans in 1913 when it was concealed and smuggled out of the country despite laws that declared it illegal to remove ‘exceptional’ archaeological finds from Egypt. The Germans argue that they removed it legally because the French who ran the Antiquities Service at the time permitted them to. However, the Germans mislead the Antiquities Service as to the nature of the piece, downplaying its significance.
The Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone, originally discovered by the French, was taken to England by the British. It is a fragment of a larger stele inscribed in 196 BC with a royal decree of Ptolemy V written in three different scripts: Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek. Working backwards from Greek, French scholars were able to begin deciphering hieroglyphics. Since 1802 it has been in the British Museum. With the recent news that over 2,000 artifacts had been stolen from the British Museum and some even sold again online, the British Museum has demonstrated its inability to properly care for artifacts in its collection. The Rosetta Stone is too iconic of an object to be left in such careless hands. It must come to the Grand Egyptian Museum where it will be safe.
The Dendera Zodiac
This piece came from the ceiling of a chapel for Osiris inside of a Temple for Hathor in Dendera. After the Napoleonic expedition Sebastien Louis Saulnier paid for it to be destructively removed and brought to Paris in 1821. In order to move it he had it broken into three pieces.