Critics Review of St Louis Art Museum Show About Egypt

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PILAR BUSTAMENTE/NOTIMEX

When Goneim discovered the 19th dynasty mask atop a cached Egyptian pyramid, he dubbed her Ka-Nefer-Nefer: the Twice-Beautiful Ka.

Egyptian government minister of antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim has a message for the Saint Louis Art Museum: Let our mummy mask get.

The mummy in question is Ka-Nefer-Nefer, "The Twice-Beautiful Ka," an Egyptian noblewoman whose funeral mask was unearthed by archeologist Mohammed Zakaria Goneim in 1951, more than 3,000 years afterwards her death. SLAM caused the the mask in 1998 from an antiquities dealer, but Egypt maintains the mask was stolen decades agone and smuggled out of the country.

The U.South. government sued SLAM in 2011, attempting to return the mask to Arab republic of egypt, only the example savage apart final calendar week after U.South. attorneys missed a uncomplicated filing deadline. At present, the Egyptian authorities is threatening to sue SLAM itself.

See also: Saint Louis Art Museum Wins Court Battle Over Ancient Egyptian Mask

The initial federal instance against SLAM boiled down to proving the mask entered the country illegally, and therefore had to be returned to Arab republic of egypt. The U.Southward. government pointed out that Ka-Nefer-Nefer was discovered missing in the 1970s, implying someone must have violated a stack of U.S. customs laws by importing the ancient treasure hither in the 1990s. SLAM must have known nearly the theft, claims the authorities.

SLAM tells a dissimilar story. The museum insists information technology thoroughly traced the mask'southward provenance back to a Swiss buyer in the 1960s; from in that location it fabricated its way to the gallery Phoenix Aboriginal Fine art of New York in 1995, which in turn sold Ka-Nefer-Nefer to SLAM in 1998 for $499,000.

The mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer resides at the Saint Louis Fine art Museum. But is information technology stolen?

Problems with the U.Due south. regime's lawsuit and procedural blunders have frustrated Egyptian officials. In a curiously worded statement released on Saturday, Ibrahim vowed to go the private-sector road, "to practise pressures on St. Louis Art Museum according to the agreements signed in this regard." He also stressed that Egypt refuses to carelessness its correct to the mask.

To be sure, things have non gone well for the U.South. attorneys trying to pry the mask away from SLAM. In 2012 a U.Southward. commune judge blasted the vagueness of government's case, writing that "the claimant cannot even be sure of the who, what, when or where of the alleged events surrounding the alleged 'stealing'" occurred.

When the government tried to appeal in January 2014, however, it obviously missed a filing deadline, causing Judge James Loken to remark the government at present had to "beg for a do-over."

Last week, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant the government that do-over. Loken, who wrote the sentence, chastised the authorities lawyers who "knew many months prior to the social club of dismissal of the possible need to improve its pleading."

Judge Diana Murphy concurred with the ruling, but mentioned that the fight over the Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask has much greater significance than just a missed borderline:

I concur in the court'southward opinion but write separately to express my business concern about what the tape in this case reveals about the illicit trade in antiquities...The substantive bug underlying this litigation are of great significance, and non just to museums which responsibly seek to build their collections. The theft of cultural patrimony and its trade on the black market for stolen antiquities present concerns of international import. These issues affect governments and the international fine art and antiquities markets, also as those who seek to safeguard global cultural heritage.

Daily RFT reached out to SLAM director Brent R. Benjamin, who is patently pleased with the determination.

"The court's determination is good news for the Saint Louis Art Museum as it allows usa to continue to provide all visitors to the museum, and the citizens we serve, this rich experience in the ancient fine art," he says in a argument.

All this legal wrangling may seem dry, but the story of Ka-Nefer-Nefer'south discovery -- and the fight to possess the gorgeous artifact -- is annihilation merely. Riverfront Times' very own Malcom Gay investigated the mask in his 2006 story, "Out of Egypt," tracing the mask and its discovery on the side of a pyramid in 1951 through the mysterious twists and dubious turns that brought it to St. Louis in 1998. It's a real-life Indiana Jones tale, and well worth the read.

Follow Danny Wicentowski on Twitter at @D_Towski. Eastward-mail the author at [email protected]

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Source: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/arts/egypt-demands-saint-louis-art-museum-return-3000-year-old-mummy-mask-2568833