EGYPT SAYS IT’S STOLEN, CHRISTIE’S IT’S FINE, SELLS KING TUT SCULPTURE FOR $6M
So I was always fascinated with ancient Egypt, the pharaohs, mummies and the whole bit. I’ve been lucky enough to visit a lot of artifacts in several Western museums. But I never thought about buying my very own piece of history. So how about a 3,300 year old sculpture of King Tut? You know, Tutankhamun? Christies recently sold that very item at auction recently for a whopping $6 million. Maybe that’s why I never thought about buying. But here’s the catch. Christie’s sold the King Tut statue without it’s provenance being clear. So what does that mean? It means we don’t know who owned the statue in the first place. Oopsie.
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3,300 YEAR OLD PIECE OF HISTORY LEFT EGYPT HOW? WHEN? CHRISTIE’S WON’T SAY
But this issue isn’t really new. Like I said above, I saw a lot of ancient Egyptian artifacts in several museums in both the US and Europe. But someone pretty much stole those items decades ago. That’s kind of what happened here. But in a much more contemporary sense. The current Egyptian government says this sculpture is a stolen item and belongs in Egypt. But that didn’t stop Christie’s now, did it? Nope. As you can see, it’s quite a piece. The bust is 11 inches tall and is comprised of brown quartzite. At its age, it show damage to the chin, ears and nose.
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But it really depicts the ancient Egyptian god, Amen. The artist took some license and used the face of King Tut to represent the old god. Just last week on July 4th, Christie’s proudly sold the piece for just under a cool $6 million. But that was despite the Egyptian government protesting fiercely. Egypt’s ambassador to London demanded that Christie’s produce proof of ownership. So essentially, Egypt claims they own this piece of history. But why? Because they say someone stole this years ago from Egypt. That’s why they demanded proof of ownership. Specifically, who first bought this in Egypt?
But yet again, it didn’t matter. Christie’s says they followed the law. Egypt says this and so much else is all stolen goods. So we’re not out of the Colonial, Imperial age quite yet, are we?