Egypt announced Wednesday that it had retrieved some 5,000 ancient items from the United States, after years of negotiations to return fraudulently acquired items.
In a statement, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities confirmed the "arrival at Cairo airport of a large number of ancient Egyptian items which had been in the possession of the Museum of the Bible in Washington.”
The items, totaling nearly 5,000, mainly consisted of manuscripts, but also included funeral masks, parts of coffins and the heads of stone statues, said Chaabane Abdeljawad, an official quoted in the statement.
The items, which left Egypt in a fraudulent manner, would be placed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the statement added.
Egyptian authorities negotiated their return over several years.
