CAIRO: The Egyptian Museum has received five ancient fresco pieces that France s Louvre Museum returned under the threat of a boycott, Egypt s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Wednesday.
The fragments, taken from the tomb of an ancient Egyptian noble, arrived in the museum on Tuesday as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, Hawass said in a statement.
The Louvre said it decided to return the fragments after Hawass severed ties with the museum in October. The fragments had been stolen in 1980, according to Hawass.
Egypt s powerful chief archaeologist had used the same approach to press for the return of ancient artifacts in the past, but his latest move was his most high-profile yet.
Hawass, who says he has overseen the return of 5,000 relics since he took his post in 2002, is now demanding the return of an iconic bust of Queen Nefertiti in Berlin s Neues Museum he says was illegally taken from Egypt.
He also wants back the Rosetta Stone, a basalt slab inscribed with ancient Greek and Egyptian scripts that has been housed in the British Museum since 1802. -AFP
