Two ancient statues back from Belgium

 Two ancient Egyptian statues that had been smuggled to Belgium are now back in Egypt.

One of the statues, of a man standing, dates back to the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC) and is made of painted wood.

The other, which dates back to the Late Period (525-332 BC), is of a man sleeping on his back with his arms crossed over his chest. It is what is known as an ushabti statue, a funerary figurine that was an integral part of ancient Egyptian burial rites.

The two pieces were handed over by Assistant Foreign Minister for Cultural Relations Amr Selim to the Repatriation Antiquities Department (RAD) at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the presence of General Supervisor of the RAD Shaaban Abdel-Gawad and a representative of the Ministry of Interior.

Egypt has succeeded in recovering 5,000 artefacts from the US, 115 from France and 36 from Spain in recent years.

Meanwhile, Egypt announced the recovery of 16 Egyptian artifacts from the United States of America, in co-operation with the Office of the Public Prosecutor in New York, and in coordination with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the various concerned authorities in the country.