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Met Museum Returns 19 Artifacts from King Tut's Tomb to Egypt

By DNAinfo Staff on November 10, 2010 4:57pm

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER EAST SIDE — Curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art hoping to bypass the curse of King Tutankhamun are returning to Egypt 19 artifacts that turned out to have originated from his tomb.

The decision to return the items was made after a team of researchers determined definitively that the artifacts were taken from the King Tut archaeological site, meaning that by law they are supposed to stay in Egypt, said Thomas Campbell, the museum's director.

"Because of precise legislation relating to that excavation, these objects were never meant to have left Egypt, and therefore should rightfully belong to the Government of Egypt," Campbell said in a statement.

The items, which include small sculptures and other fragments of art, were all acquired by the Met between the 1920s and the 1940s.

Rumors that fine ancient Egyptian art on display around the world had unlawfully originated from King Tut's tomb began circulating soon after archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed the burial in 1922.

All of the artifacts in Carter's Luxor home were donated to The Met Upon his death in 1939. At the time of the transfer, the Egyptian government did not find that any of the items came from King Tut's tomb, according to the Met.

Researchers later found that some of the items in the collection were included in tomb records but did not appear in excavation photographs.

"This is a wonderful gesture on the part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, in a statement.

"For many years the museum, and especially the Egyptian art department, has been a strong partner in our ongoing efforts to repatriate illegally exported antiquities," Hawass said.

Before returning to Egypt, the artifacts will go on display at the Times Square Tutankhamun exhibit through January 2011, and then will briefly return to the Met until June.

The artifacts will be on permanent display at the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza when it opens in 2012.