France Returns Relics to Fake Egyptians from Planck's Constant

France's culture minister agreed last week to return five painted wall fragments to Egypt after Egyptians cut ties with the Louvre Museum. The fragments came from a 3,200-year-old tomb near the ancient temple city of Luxor.

According to officials at the Louvre, they acquired the ancient artifacts in "good faith" in 2000 and 2003 although I have a hard time understanding how one buys ancient Egyptian relics in "good faith"; it's not as if they went to a local Wal-Mart and picked them off a rack.

But I suppose the Louvre is between a rock and a hard wall fresco. If they don't return the goods, Egypt will freeze them out of future excavations in Egypt. If they do return them, then the risk is that a future Islamic regime may in fact destroy all non-Islamic artifacts and the world will lose precious, irreplaceable remembrances of ancient Egyptian history. See my article 13 Things Egyptian your grandchildren will never see.

It is no accident that no archeological digs were ever done in Egypt during the thousand plus year reign of Islam through all the various dynasties. If it is not Islamic then it is of no interest to a Muslim. For Muslims, history begins with the birth of Mohammed. There is no history before then and certainly no interest in the ancient peoples they conquered or their histories. Muslim Arabs on their camels would pass by the pyramids unconcerned for their origins or who built them. If it were not for Europeans there would be no artifacts from ancient Egypt. The sands containing the treasures of Egypt would remain undisturbed until the end of days.

According to Beth at Blue Star Chronicles, Egypt is trying to get back some key artifacts from museums around the world:

Hawass is also aggressively seeking to have returned other ancient relics that have been in museums around the world. The Louvre also has a painted ceiling showing the Zodiac from a temple at Dendera. The St. Louis Art Museum has a 3,200-year-old golden burial mask of a noblewoman and Hawass has cut ties with that museum. He wants the Rosetta Stone, which is in the possession of The British Museum in London and Nefertiti’s bust which is in the possession of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

I await the day that Egypt demands the return of every single item taken from their country during Napoleon's expedition in the 1800s and afterward. Not because present day Egyptians value them (certainly present day Egyptians are not the Egyptians of the Old Testament), but because they do not want anyone else to have them.