Date: Third
Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21, ca. 1070-975
BC
Material: Cedar,
plaster, paint
Provenance: Unknown;
possibly Thebes
Excavated: most
probably excavated illegally
Status:
Returned
to Egypt
On
October 1st, 2008, United States customs
officials
at Miami International
Airport detained a shipment from Spain that
contained a 21st Dynasty Egyptian coffin. The
importer, Felix Cervera of the private gallery
Arqueologia Clasica S.L., had
no documentation whatsoever to demonstrate
that the coffin had left Egypt legally. The
American authorities were
concerned that the coffin might have been stolen
and illegally exported to Spain. Cervera told
investigators from the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Agency (ICE) of the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) that he had purchased
the coffin from the “Buendia Collection.”
The
earliest available record of the coffin dates
to 2007, when it was exhibited at theAlexandra
Irigoyen Galleries in Madrid and well at Cervera’s
Gallery in Barcelona. None of the experts
consulted by the SCA had seen the coffin before,
suggesting that it was excavated illegally
and smuggled out of Egypt relatively recently.
At
the request of the SCA, the US Department
of Homeland
Security seized the coffin on October 1,
2008. Notice of the seizure was sent to the
interested
parties on February 26th, 2009. All parties
had 30 days from the date of the seizure
notice to respond; the American buyer of the
coffin
has already abandoned his interest, leaving
only the SCA and Mr. Cervera as potential
claimants. The SCA petitioned DHS to return
the coffin
to Egypt without bringing the matter before
a court; Cervera contested this, and counsel
for the SCA filed a claim before the court
on November 10, 2009. Cervera failed to file
a counterclaim before the deadline, so the
most likely next step will be for the coffin
to be forfeited to the US authorities. On
March 12, 2010, Dr. Zahi Hawass traveled to
Washington, D.C. The US authorities handed
the coffin to him in a ceremony held at the
National Geographic Society, and Dr. Hawass
brought the coffin home on March 12, 2010.
It is currently at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
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Third Intermediate Period coffin (Homeland Security) |
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