Tutankhamun relic sells for $6 mn in London despite Egyptian outcry
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, December 24, 2024


Tutankhamun relic sells for $6 mn in London despite Egyptian outcry
An Egyptian brown quartzite head of Tutankhamen as the God Amen. Estimate on request. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

by Dmitry Zaks



LONDON (AFP).- A 3,000-year-old quartzite head of Egyptian "Boy King" Tutankhamun was auctioned off for $6 million Thursday in London despite a fierce outcry from Cairo.

Christie's auction house sold the 28.5-centimetre (11-inch) relic for £4,746,250 ($5,970,000, 5,290,000 euros) at one of its most controversial auctions in years.

No information about the buyer was disclosed.

The famous pharaoh's finely-chiselled face -- its calm eyes and puffed lips emoting a sense of eternal peace -- came from the private Resandro Collection of ancient art that Christie's last parcelled off for £3 million in 2016.

But angry Egyptian officials wanted Thursday's sale halted and the treasure returned.

About a dozen protesters waved Egyptian flags and held up signs reading "stop trading in smuggled antiquities" outside the British auction house's London sales room.

"This should not be kept at home. It should be in a museum," Egyptian national Magda Sakr told AFP.

"It is history. It is one of our most famous kings," the 50-year-old said.

Egypt's antiquities ministry said it would hold a special meeting at the start of next week to discuss its next steps in the standoff.

"The Egyptian government will take all the necessary measures to recover Egyptian antiquities that left Egypt illegally," it said in statement.

'Stolen from Karnak'
Former Egyptian antiquities minister Zahi Hawass told AFP by telephone from Cairo that the piece appeared to have been "stolen" in the 1970s from the Karnak Temple complex just north of Luxor.

"We think it left Egypt after 1970 because in that time other artefacts were stolen from Karnak Temple," Hawass said.

The Egyptian foreign ministry had asked the UK Foreign Office and the UN cultural body UNSECO to step in and halt the sale.

But such interventions are rare and made only when there is clear evidence of the item's legitimate acquisition by the seller being in dispute.

Christie's argued that Egypt had never before expressed the same level of concern about an item whose existence has been "well known and exhibited publicly" for many years.

"The object is not, and has not been, the subject of an investigation," Christie's said in a statement to AFP.

The auction house has published a chronology of how the relic changed hands between European art dealers over the past 50 years.

Its oldest attribution from 1973-74 places it in the collection of Prince Wilhelm of Thurn and Taxi in modern-day Germany.

This account's veracity was called into doubt by a report from the Live Science news site last month suggesting that Wilhelm never owned the piece.

Wilhelm was "not a very art-interested person," his niece Daria told the news site.

'Clear ownership'
Tutankhamun is thought to have become a pharaoh at the age of nine and to have died about 10 years later.

His rule would have probably passed without notice were it not for the 1922 discovery by Britain's Howard Carter of his nearly intact tomb.

The lavish find revived interest in ancient Egypt and set the stage for subsequent battles over ownership of cultural masterpieces unearthed in colonial times.

Tutankhamun became commonly known as King Tut and made into the subject of popular songs and films.

International conventions and the British government's own guidance restrict the sale of works that were known to have been stolen or illegally dug up.

The British Museum has been wrangling for decades with Greece over its remarkable room full of marble Parthenon friezes and sculptures.

Egypt's own campaign to recover lost art gained momentum after numerous works went missing during the looting that accompanied former president Hosni Mubarak's fall from power in 2011.

Cairo has managed to regain hundreds of looted and stolen artefacts by working with both auction houses and international cultural groups.

But it was never able to provide evidence for the Tutankhamun bust being illegally obtained.

Christie's told AFP that it would "not sell any work where there isn't clear title of ownership".


© Agence France-Presse










Today's News

July 5, 2019

Philistine DNA suggests European roots, researchers say

Artists battle expulsion as rents rise in booming Berlin

Tutankhamun relic sells for $6 mn in London despite Egyptian outcry

Erwin Olaf places his photographs in dialogue with Dutch paintings at the Rijksmuseum

Van Gogh's Sunflowers under the microscope in a new, scholarly publication

Rarely seen Rauschenberg works from highly experimental period presented in new exhibition

UK premiere of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: A Different View

Space-consuming installation by Monica Bonvicini on view at Belvedere 21

Camden Arts Centre opens the first institutional exhibition in the UK of Elizabeth Murray

Exhibition includes more than one hundred photographs by Italian photographer Ugo Mulas

Whistler and Pennell etchings go on display at Sudley House

National Building Museum and Rockwell Group present Lawn

New exhibition explores climate, culture, and innovation in Dutch maritime painting

Five finalists for the inaugural 'Women in Design Award' announced by Good Design Australia

TarraWarra Museum of Art appoints Nina Miall as Curator for TarraWarra Biennial 2020

July fine autographs & artifacts auction featuring animation art

First UK solo exhibition of works by Patricia Domínguez opens at Gasworks

Kunstforeningen GL STRAND opens an exhibition of works by photographer Richard Mosse

Montauk Beach House presents works by Leah Schrager

Contemporary photojournalism exhibit opens

Manchester International Festival opens

The Untitled Space opens an exhibition of works by artist Kat Toronto aka Miss Meatface

Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers to offer a lifetime single-owner collection of Coca-Cola collectibles

Proyectos Monclova opens an exhibition of works by Anna Virnich

How casinos are designed to promote Gaming

Filing for a divorce in Texas

The Advantages and Drawbacks of Mobile Bingo

Anxiety? Make sure you sleep well

Island hopping in Greece-which island to visit

Teaching Methods to Improve Writing Skills




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
(52 8110667640)

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful