This archive report was first published on 2 October 2019.
On October 1, 2019, the golden coffin of priest Nedjemankh was unveiled at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Cairo, marking its return from New York after years of being part of an international trafficking ring.
The 1.8-meter fine gilded sarcophagus, dating back to the Ptolemaic period (1st-2nd century BC), was designed for Nedjemankh, a high priest of the ram-headed god Heryshef.
According to reports, the ornate wooden coffin was smuggled out of Minya in southern Egypt in 2011, the year Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular revolt.
It then made its way to the United Arab Emirates and Germany before landing in France, where it was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in New York for around $3.8 million in 2017.
However, an exhibition at the Met had to shut down in February after being informed that the sarcophagus had been plundered by a multi-national trafficking ring.
"I am very happy to have this piece back again in Egypt... We will know all the details about the theft later," said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, at the unveiling.
