Egypt Coordinates with UK to Fight Illegal Trade of Antiquities

A high-profile Egyptian delegation met with a host of key British officials in London on Thursday.

The Egyptian delegation comprised of political, legal and antiquities’ officials.

They interviewed counterpart of Ministries of Tourism, Culture and Art in the United Kingdom (UK) to discuss methods of fighting the illegal trade of the Egyptian antiquities.

The Egyptian and British officials seek to set a mechanism to bolster cooperation and exchange information in the future.

Dr. Khalid El Enani, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities met with UK Minister of Culture, Art and Tourism in October on the sidelines of opening Exhibition of Treasures of King Tutankhamen in London.

Ahmed Obied, Assistant of Minister of Antiquities, explained that all the Egyptian and British laws concerned trading in antiquities and cultural assets were reviewed during the meeting. The British law put responsibility of the illegal ownership on the plaintiff not the owner.

However, the Egyptian law enforces anybody acquires a piece of antiquities to prove its legal ownership or submit a certificate when he wishes to export it.

In spite of those differences between the legal systems in Egypt and the United Kingdom, the officials suggested to ink a memorandum of understanding ( MoU) between the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the concerned British one to fight the illegal trading in antiquities and cultural assets.

The Egyptian and British officials are going to meet Cairo earlier next year. The two parties consented to dispatch a UK delegation to the Egyptian capital to negotiate how to support channels of exchange information at that field.

Ambassador Magid Mosleh, General Supervisor over Department of Foreign Relations and International Cooperation at the Ministry of Antiquities, pointed out that British officials at the end of meeting welcomed a suggestion of sending experts in listing the archaeological sites at list of the international heritage.

Increasing the enlisted sites enables Egypt to enlist a bigger number of her archaeological sites at international heritage sponsored by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This meeting between the Egyptian and British parties is the first of its sort. It will be a good omen to achieve progress in suspended files.

The Egyptian delegation also comprised Ambassador Tariq Adel, Egypt’s Ambassador to the UK, Dr. Mohamed Sameh Amr, head of the Executive council and former Egypt Envoy to the UNESCO and Professor of the International Law, Cairo University.

Contributed by Ahmed Moamar