By:Bassam ElShamaa

On the 22nd of February 2022, the same day which witnesses the entrance of the sun rays into Abu Simbel, the Temple of Ramses II, to illuminate some statues inside the

temple, just after the rising of the great sun of Nubia, the "imakho" sun (a hieroglyphic word which means "respectable"), only a few hours later, occurs a despicable attempt to force the shining sun of our civilization to set; a huge number of artifacts that belong to this civilization is going to be offered for sale in a public auction, in full view of the whole world. This incident forms just an episode of a long organized and continuous history of offering Egyptian antiquities for sale.

 

 

This auction represents the final phase for the international Mafia, after which the artifact disappears completely to form a part of a private collection of a multimillionaire, or may be a Zionist who has no history and tries to steal a chapter another country's history and make it his through theft and lies.

A tremendous number of fine and elaborated Egyptian artifacts is going to be offered for sale in "Timeline Auctions", a repeated story that takes place very often with cold blood and boldness. Nevertheless, this special case needs to be documented. And this is why I call on people's hearts and minds all over the world to stop this absurd action.

As I have been doing for the last 20 years with these auctions that sell our Egyptian monuments, I have to warn about this disaster, although this time it is much more different than all the previous cases, and on a similar situation Egypt has to bare its fangs and take serious measures.

I suggest that relations with the UNESCO and the International Council of Museums ICOM and all archaeological organizations should be interrupted, and that Egypt should withdraw out of all the unfair and useless agreements which do not support its rights. They never support us.

And above all, Egypt should abandon the 1970's UNESCO Agreement, launched in Paris from the Louvre Museum, which represents another clear proof for the theft and smuggling of Egyptian monuments by the gang of Champollion and company.

 

 

First of all, this case is not similar to any previous case because the auction is supposed to be held on a very special day concerning Egyptian Civilization, the 22nd of February -although it might not be the intention of the auction putting out monuments on bid- when the sun penetrates the temple to illuminate 3 out of 4 statues inside the last hall excavated in the mountain in Abu Simbel Temple, built by Ramses II from the XIX Dynasty. This is the day on which Egyptian Civilization introduces to the whole world the genius of the Ancient Egyptians in sculpture and astronomy, and the creativity of the southern Egyptian workers. On that precise date, our antiquities are going to be offered for bid!!! On that day, the sun of civilization shines in the South of Egypt, and shortly after that the memory of many artifacts disappears and they vanish into the unknown.

 Secondly, this auction includes over 135 artifacts that belong to different phases and periods of civilization, all considered as authentic although highly affected by Egyptian Culture and mutual influence, pieces that include old Egyptian objects, royal and popular, a wonderful complete sarcophagus for a lady with all its beautiful colors still shining, statues, vessels, plates, vases, cups, Coptic textiles, papyri with inscriptions, Greek stelae, Ptolemaic monuments and beauty instruments and stones sculpted in a very creative way from alabaster and other materials.

 

 

Thirdly, the number of artifacts set for bid is enormous, 135 pieces, compared to many previous auctions.

Fourthly, there is an artifact, for instance, that has been labeled with all specific details that tell its story since it has been found, which means that there are specialists working with the Gallery offering our monuments for sale, highly organized mafia groups that includes history and civilization professors, archaeologists and Egyptologists that can easily do this job without any problems, adding the references of the consulted bibliography to trace the history of the objects on sale. Estimated prices are added and the suggestions for prices are open online for everyone. One artifact has been put on sale starting 2 £. Can you imagine? Only 2 pounds!! Isn't this too much humiliating for monuments that should be estimated in billions of pounds?

And last, I should draw the attention to a recent strategy followed by galleries offering monuments for bid, the addition of a note in the form of a label which states that the artifact has been checked on the list of Interpol for smuggled artifacts, in order to apply a legitimate character on the selling of smuggled antiquities. The whole world just keeps silent and looks quiet the other way.

Isn't this Egypt, frequently visited by all people of the world who love its monuments? Where are the international organizations? Where are those people who love Egypt? Why don't they protest and reclaim the rights of the owners of Egyptian Civilization? Why do they keep silent while those galleries are giving away our monuments to smugglers and museums all over the world? We are still in recovery since the Egyptian artifact in Sotheby's Gallery has been sold a few days ago for less than 10 million dollars.

I would like also to discuss with you the catastrophic article of the UNESCO Convention, and prove why I consider it catastrophic, and does not allow Egypt to claim its rights in its own cultural properties scattered in all the museums and galleries all over the world. And that article is the main reason I suggest that Egypt should abandon this deceiving convention. The article says:

"Article 4

The States Party to this Convention recognize that for the purpose of the Convention property which belongs to the following categories forms part of the cultural heritage of each State:

1. a) Cultural property created by the individual or collective genius of nationals of the State concerned, and cultural property of importance to the State concerned created within the territory of that State by foreign nationals or stateless persons resident within such territory;
2. b) Cultural property found within the national territory;
3. c) Cultural property acquired by archaeological, ethnological or natural science missions, with the consent of the competent authorities of the country of origin of such property;
4. d) Cultural property which has been the subject of a freely agreed exchange;
5. e) Cultural property received as a gift or purchased legally with the consent of the competent authorities of the country of origin of such property."

In brief, that article is unfair. How can this convention be sure that the authorities were loyal to Egyptian antiquities when they were giving it away as a gift of exchanging it? Were they faithful Egyptians that loved their country? Where they Egyptians, in the first place?

How can it be logical that an international convention agreed by the whole "civilized" world approve these unfair conditions? And why does Egypt join such a convention that does not respect its rights?

We still have a chance, I think, to abandon this convention and chase those usurping countries all over the world by all means. We should bare our fangs and fight for our rights. This is not the time of soft diplomatic words.

My call this time is not just for the Ministry of Antiquities, which by the way is doing just fine recovering thousands of artifacts and monuments from all parts of the world, and especially the Monuments Recovery Section, leaded by MR. Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, confronting the flod of smuggling and theft of antiquities. This time higher authorities should interfere, our ambassadors and representatives in the UN all over the world should claim the rights of Egypt, all together with other nations whose monuments are also being continuously smuggled; Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Palestine, Libya, African countries; Stop our antiquities from going with the wind!!!

Egyptian monuments should stay on Egyptian land!!

Bassam El-Shammaa