Date: Predynastic
Period, ca. 3500-3000 BC
Material: Various
Provenance: Ma'adi
(outside Cairo)
Details: 370
objects, mostly vessels of pottery and
stone
Excavated: Between
1930 and 1953, by I. Rizkhana and J. Seeher for
Cairo University and the German Institute in
Cairo
Status:
Of 370
objects known to be missing, 98 have been
recovered.
In
2002, thieves looted the Cairo University
Museum/Magazine in Ma'adi.
An inventory done immediately after the theft
counted 370 objects missing, mostly Predynastic
vessels. The remaining objects
were moved to another SCA magazine, and the
museum was closed.
With the assistance of a
number of scholars and
institutions,
including
the
US
Department
of Homeland Security, four groups of these Ma'adi
objects have been recovered.
The
first group to be returned had been offered
for sale
by Bonham's auction house on October 28, 2004.
Curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York
spotted them and alerted the SCA. These were
returned to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo,
on March 15,
2005.
Another single vessel was
recovered, with the assistance of the US Department
of Homeland Security, from Christie's auction
house in London.
The
US Department of Homeland Security sezied
another 79 of the stolen objects,
which were in the possession of various auction
houses.
They had been consigned to these houses by
Edward “Dutch” Johnson, a US army
pilot who smuggled at least 100 of the artifacts
out of Egypt. Mr. Johnson was convicted and
sentenced in US court for smuggling. The artifacts
were returned to the Egyptian Museum, Cairo
on December 15, 2008.
Eight
of the Ma'adi vessels were purchased by a
Swiss collector, who voluntarily
returned them to the SCA in 2009.
The remaining objects are
still missing. Any information as to their
whereabouts would be greatly appreciated by
the SCA.
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