[MSN] CARBONDALE -- An ancient Egyptian artifact is leaving Little Egypt behind, and will be sent back home. Ancient Artifact at Southern Illinois University Museum to Return to Egypt.

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Museum returns Egyptian artifact
By Scott Fitzgerald, The Southern
Friday, January 25, 2008 10:43 AM CST

CARBONDALE - The University Museum at Southern Illinois University
Carbondale is doing the right thing, with just a touch of reluctance.

Museum director Dona Bachman is working on final details to return a
Ptolemaic bronze cat reliquary to the Egyptian consulate's office in
Chicago. It will eventually return to Egypt, where more than 5,000 artifacts
have been retrieved through its Supreme Council of Antiquities. The council
was established in 2002 to retrieve artifacts that were illegally shipped or
smuggled out of the country.

"It's a lovely piece. We'd love to keep it. But we also feel bound to
respect people of other countries who want their artifacts back. We feel
obligated to give it back," Bachman said.

The University Museum received the reliquary more than a year earlier from
the estate of the late SIUC music professor Steven Barwick. A friend of
Barwick's bought the reliquary, believed to have held feline remains, in
1996 in Paris. He gave it to Barwick as a gift.

The reliquary is surmounted by two cats seated side by side and is believed
to be traced back to the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt sometime between 300 B.C.
and 100 B.C., said SIUC spokesman Rod Sievers.

Immediately upon receiving the artifact, Bachman saw that it came with a
certificate of identity from the Paris shop where it had been purchased.

"That set up some red flags. This was clearly something that was ancient. We
photographed it and sent the certificate of authenticity," she said.

The University Museum contacted the Supreme Council of Antiquities in late
fall asking for permission to exhibit the artifact as part of the museum's
collection, in addition to asking for more details such as the
archaeological site where it was found.

"Whenever the museum gets a piece, they check it out," Sievers said.

Secretary General Zahi Hawass of the Supreme Council of Antiquities
investigated the request and found the artifact had been smuggled out of
Egypt years earlier. He requested the reliquary be returned to Egypt.

Bachman said museum directors like her are aware of acts through entities
like the SCA that work to get artifacts and other objects lawfully returned
to their original owners.

"It's very important to museums today," Bachman said.

scott.fitzgerald at thesouthern.com

http://www.archaeologynews.org/