Artifacts which were stolen from Egypt by smugglers have been returned by America

May 6 , 2015 About one hundred and twenty three artifacts from ancient Egyptian which were smuggled to the United States following the 2011 uprising have been recovered and returned to Egypt. They were found during a five-year investigation by the U.S. government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had their sight set on an international criminal network dealing in smuggled cultural items from around the world.

The ancient collection included coffins from the third dynasty and wooden ships and have arrived Cairo. Egypt’s Minister for Antiquities, Mamdouh al-Damaty was on hand to receive them with other experts and thanked the National Geographic Society for spearheading the retrieval.

The minister said “Egypt is celebrating today the return of a special collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts that were illegally smuggled abroad, and began appearing in New York,”

He added that “Most of the smuggling took place during the first three years following the uprising. But during the last year, the grip was stronger. Border security is working very hard. The tourism and antiquities police are working very hard. The tourism and antiquities police, in recent weeks, have caught 74 cases! Which only shows the hard work that the police is doing to protect these”

The minister has revealed that security has been increased to protect antiquities in the country. Antiquity theft has become popular in the three years since the 2011 uprising. The uprising sparked the robbery of an indeterminate amount of heritage from museums, mosques, storage facilities, and illegal excavations.