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Egypt requested that the artifact be returned under the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which both it and the Netherlands are beholden to.
A 3,500-year-old stone head believed to have been stolen from Luxor during the Arab Spring in the early 2010s has been returned to Egypt, the Dutch Government Information and Heritage Inspectorate said in a Thursday statement.
The sculpture, which depicts a high-ranking official from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III, first drew the attention of authorities in 2022 at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair in the Netherlands.
According to the statement, Sycomore Ancient Art, the artifact’s dealer during the fair, noticed that the artifact’s provenance documents were odd, and consulted an expert from the British Museum before eventually contacting the Dutch National Police.
The DNP conducted an investigation into the artifact’s origin, in cooperation with the Inspectorate and alongside experts from the British Museum and the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.
Spanish police were also consulted in order to investigate one of the sculpture’s previous sellers, according to the statement.
The 3,500-year-old stone head stolen from Luxor, Egypt, during the Arab Spring, February 8, 2026. (credit: Dutch Government Information and Heritage Inspectorate, Education, Culture, and Science Ministry. )
Artifact returned under 1970 UNESCO Convention
The statement explained that the artifact was deemed authentic, with investigators ruling that it had most likely been stolen from Luxor during the Arab Spring.
Egyptian authorities confirmed that the object had been taken illegally, according to the statement, and that it was under the protection of Egypt’s heritage law.
The country also requested that the artifact be returned under the 1970 UNESCO Convention, to which both it and the Netherlands are parties. Per the convention, each country must “prevent the unlawful export of cultural objects and return unlawfully exported cultural objects to their country of origin.”
The artifact was recently returned to Egypt during a formal handover ceremony at the Egyptian embassy in the Hague, according to the statement.
“It is deeply regrettable that this object was removed due to looting,” Dutch Education, Culture and Science Gouke Moes said during the ceremony. “This stone head does not belong here, and certainly not on the art market. It belongs in Egypt.”
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