Egypt campaigners demand artefact returns after Dutch govt agrees to send back 3,500-year-old stone head
LONDON: Campaigners in Egypt have demanded the return of artefacts held in Europe after the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
It comes as Dick Schoof, the outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, announced that a 3,500-year-old stone head from the dynasty of Thutmose III would be returned to Egypt during a summit with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo on Sunday.
The handover, to take place later this year under the 1970 UNESCO Convention, comes after the item was seized in Maastricht at an art fair in 2022.
Items including the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London are among the most important in both Egyptian and world ancient history, and Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist and former minister of antiquities, launched a movement to pressure international governments into returning them in 2010.
