CAIRO: Egypt will host a conference in April for countries demanding the return of their stolen antiquities that are on display in museums round the world, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said Wednesday.
The conference will discuss the question of returning stolen antiquities, the council said in a statement. It gave no dates for the three-day conference.
Thirty countries, including Greece, Mexico, Peru, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and China, will participate in the Cairo gathering, said the head of the SCA Zahi Hawass, who has made the return of looted Egyptian artifacts the hallmark of his tenure.
Officials from these countries will discuss taking action internationally to support efforts to return stolen antiquities to their countries of origin . and exhibited in certain museums and showrooms around the world, Hawass said. The conference aims to work out specific recommendations and draw up a list of the antiquities claimed by each participating country.
It will also review international laws on the subject, for their reconsideration and to protect the rights of the countries to recover their cultural and archaeological property, Hawass added.
Egypt is demanding the return of famous antiquities such as the Rosetta stone, displayed at the British Museum for more than 200 years, and the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, a major Pharaonic artifact showcased at the Neues Museum in Berlin, which Egypt says was taken out of the country illegally.
Hawass recently succeeded in retrieving five 3,000-years-old fragments of mural paintings from the Louvre after suspending cooperation with the French museum for not returning them. -AFP
