In the event, which discussed proposals to change the UNESCO convention on the recovery of stolen goods illicitly, participates
Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile and Spain
A score of countries with powerful archaeological legacies, including several American, discussed at a conference opened in Cairo how to protect and retrieve their stolen heritage.
“We want to get together and work together to identify and regain our stolen inheritance,” said the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawas, the startup of the First International Conference on Cooperation for the security and restoration of cultural inheritance.
The event, which will be discussed tomorrow proposals to change the UNESCO convention on the recovery of stolen goods illegally, with the participation of Spain, Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Chile and Honduras.
Also participating nations like
China, India, Cyprus, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Syria, Sri Lanka, Libya and USA.
Hawas said that the cooperation with scientific institutions and museums around the world is needed to regain the stolen goods and fighting archaeological robbery.
“If museums resist to buy stolen goods, trade can stop,” Hawas said that Egypt has explained that although recovery agreements with “95 percent of world museums, there are still 5 per cent” who have not subscribed .
The Nile nation eight years ago launched a campaign through which recovered about 5 thousand archaeological pieces that had left the nation illegally.
However, still litigating for the return of as many parts as the Rosetta Stone or the bust of Nefertiti, presently exhibited in museums in Berlin and London respectively.
Hawas again demanded the return of these works, and also used to highlight the “excellent cooperation” with countries like Switzerland or Spain.
Besides Egypt, the other participating countries will publish tomorrow a list of items considered were illicitly removed and whose refund claim to various international institutions.
In the case of Peru, its ambassador to Egypt, Liliana Chinese, said that his country be included in the final document the request for restitution of a collection of pieces from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, Peru.
“These pieces were transferred temporarily to the University of Yale (USA) and now this institution declines to return them,” said Chino.
In addition, they request more than 100 textiles belonging to the pre-Inca Paracas culture, found in Gothenburg (Sweden), and the treasure of 500 thousand pieces of silver and gold coins minted in Peru rescued from the bottom of the Odyssey by the company in March and whose return to Spain last year issued U.S. justice.
“Last year alone recover thousands of stolen items and we struggled, but Peru is a country with so much material that is very difficult to control,” said Chino.
Also noted the need to reform the UNESCO Convention of 1970 which prohibits the illegal trade in cultural property.
For the archaeologist and deputy minister of Culture and Sports of Guatemala, Hector Escobedo, are needed “more international agreements to prevent the entry into other countries of parts removed illegally.”
“Guatemala is looking for to retrieve some of the monuments from Piedras Negras, one of the most important Maya sites, and a wooden lintels chicozapote who left the country in the nineteenth century and is on exhibit in Switzerland,” said Escobedo.
For his part, Ambassador of Ecuador in Egypt, Edwin Johnson, complained that his country “part of the list of those who suffered the plundering”, especially pre-Columbian inheritance and colonial art from Quito, which was developed during the century XVII.
100`s of works, according to Johnson, they were taken lawlessly from temples, churches and even museum premises, therefore urged to strengthen border controls.
The thieving of altarpieces of churches located in rural areas is also a “recurring problem in Bolivia, according to the charge d’affaires of Bulgaria in Egypt, Raul Pals.
In the case of Spain, Jesus Manal, deputy manager of the Historical Heritage Security of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, explicated that its action is concentrated on fighting the depredations, robberies in rural areas and control traffic of archaeological artifacts.
Noticiero 