UN sounds alarm over Egyptian artifacts: report

UNESCO expressed growing concern for Egypt’s archaeological sites and museums, which it said were threatened by pillaging since the country’s revolution, the Egyptian Gazette reported on Wednesday.

“We’re getting new alarming reports from different sites and museums,” UNESCO head Irina Bukova told a meeting on fighting the international illegal trade in artefacts at the body’s Paris headquarters.

The U.N. cultural body, UNESCO, launched an initial appeal for Egypt’s priceless artefacts to be protected on Feb. 1 after artefacts were stolen from the Egyptian Museum during the chaos of Egypt’s popular revolt.

Bokova said she wrote last week to the Egyptian authorities to encourage them “to take concrete measures” to protect the sites. “We also need international mobilisation to block the objects when they turn up on the art market.”

Large amounts of artifacts have been moved from a storehouse in al-Qantra Sharq, around 120km north of Cairo to the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo to safeguard them against theft, Egypt announced last week.

Egypt’s archaeological sites have been in peril of looting since the police withdrew from the streets of the nation on Jan. 28.

A committee had been formed to make an inventory of Tal al-Faraeen's artefacts and identify what was stolen.