we’re looking at a series of artifacts
that actually came from Egypt were
stolen and recovered by u.s. customs
agents in the United States we have just
a few artifacts that are going back to
Egypt from a major antiquities smuggling
case that included artifacts from
Afghanistan Yemen Iraq Syria and Egypt
and here we’ve got a selection of
artifacts that span some 2,000 years of
antiquity we initiated a very large
investigation and we ended up
discovering a significant transnational
criminal organization that was involved
in the looting and selling of all kinds
of artifacts there’s very minimal risk
and in a huge reward for these people to
commit these crimes these kinds of
smuggling efforts they’re basically
organized gangs that use the proceeds
for further illicit activities including
in some cases terrorism these are part
of our heritage of our history of our
civilization and we feel that they’ve
been smuggled out of the country
illegally and we feel proud to receive
them back
I think National Geographic has been
over a number of decades a partner to
Egypt in preserving antiquities in
making our history more available and it
is normal in that sense that National
Geographic is hosting this event here
we’ve got a couple of objects on stage
we’ve got some wooden boat models that
are more than 4,000 years old that were
used as models for the deceased soul to
go to heaven we’ve also got some mummy
sarcophagi here one that’s 2600 years
old and one that’s about 2,000 years old
they’re all incredible the point of
returning them it’s not only just to
have the objects go back to Egypt but
also to raise awareness
that if we know that these things are
illegally shipped out of Egypt then we
shouldn’t buy them we should send them
back even though these artifacts are
very beautiful they’re more beautiful
and more meaningful when they’re back at
home
that actually came from Egypt were
stolen and recovered by u.s. customs
agents in the United States we have just
a few artifacts that are going back to
Egypt from a major antiquities smuggling
case that included artifacts from
Afghanistan Yemen Iraq Syria and Egypt
and here we’ve got a selection of
artifacts that span some 2,000 years of
antiquity we initiated a very large
investigation and we ended up
discovering a significant transnational
criminal organization that was involved
in the looting and selling of all kinds
of artifacts there’s very minimal risk
and in a huge reward for these people to
commit these crimes these kinds of
smuggling efforts they’re basically
organized gangs that use the proceeds
for further illicit activities including
in some cases terrorism these are part
of our heritage of our history of our
civilization and we feel that they’ve
been smuggled out of the country
illegally and we feel proud to receive
them back
I think National Geographic has been
over a number of decades a partner to
Egypt in preserving antiquities in
making our history more available and it
is normal in that sense that National
Geographic is hosting this event here
we’ve got a couple of objects on stage
we’ve got some wooden boat models that
are more than 4,000 years old that were
used as models for the deceased soul to
go to heaven we’ve also got some mummy
sarcophagi here one that’s 2600 years
old and one that’s about 2,000 years old
they’re all incredible the point of
returning them it’s not only just to
have the objects go back to Egypt but
also to raise awareness
that if we know that these things are
illegally shipped out of Egypt then we
shouldn’t buy them we should send them
back even though these artifacts are
very beautiful they’re more beautiful
and more meaningful when they’re back at
home
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