Egypt recovered a fragment of a statue belonging to the pharaoh “Ramses II” that had been stolen more than three decades ago from one of the Pharaonic temples. Reports indicated that Switzerland returned a fragment of Ramses II’s statue, dating back 3,400 years, which was stolen from a temple in Abydos.
The director of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Karin Baumann, handed over this “important archaeological fragment” to the Egyptian embassy in Bern on Monday, according to Agence France-Presse.
The fragment in question is part of a collective statue depicting the pharaoh Ramses II seated alongside a number of Egyptian deities, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Culture.
Ramses II, who ascended the throne at the age of 25, following his father Seti I, ruled Egypt for approximately 66 years, the longest reign in Egyptian history.
Currently, there is an exhibition dedicated to Ramses II in Paris, which will run until September 6th. The Swiss Federal Office of Culture explained that the fragment returned to Egypt on Monday had been stolen from the Temple of Ramses II in Abydos between the late 1980s and early 1990s. The fragment passed through several countries before reaching Switzerland, where it was eventually seized by the authorities of the canton of Geneva after legal proceedings.
The Federal Office of Culture emphasized that “the return of this piece confirms the shared commitment of Switzerland and Egypt to combat illicit trafficking of cultural property, which was strengthened in 2011 through the implementation of a bilateral agreement regarding the import and restitution of cultural property,” as reported by the French agency.
