Displaying items by tag: egyptian artifacts

An exhibition featuring artifacts discovered off the coast of Egypt is set to tour Europe. “Egypt’s Sunken Secrets” is organized by Franck Goddio, the founder of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, in association with Egypt’s Ministry of State for Antiquities. Artifacts have been selected from museums across the country, including 18 from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, while over 200 come from recent underwater explorations by Goddio’s team.

In a press release, Mamdouh el-Damaty, Egypt’ s head of antiquities, said that the exhibition will strengthen cultural ties between Egypt and the EU, encourage tourism to Egypt, and bring in €600,000 of funding for the ministry, as well as an additional €1 per ticket after the 100,000th visitor.

The renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York purchased a collection of 4,000-year-old Egyptian artifacts found a century ago by a British explorer, averting a plan to auction the antiquities that had drawn criticism from historians.

The Treasure of Harageh collection consists of 37 items such as flasks, vases and jewelry inlaid with lapis lazuli, a rare mineral. Discovered by famed British archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the relics date to roughly 1900 B.C., excavated from a tomb near the city of Fayum. Portions of the excavated antiquities were given in 1914 to donors in St. Louis who helped underwrite the dig.