CAIRO: A number of Egyptian and British people protested Sunday outside Christie’s auction house against the transporting the sold Egyptian Sekhemka statue out of Britain, calling for its return to Egypt.
The protest was staged Sunday to remark the first anniversary of the 4,200-year-old statue’s sale; on July 11, the Northampton Borough Council sold the limestone statue of Sekhemka at an auction by Christie’s for £15,762,500 ($23.3 million.)
“Britons participated with us in all protests and demonstrations called outside the Hall of Auctions and Christie Hall to denounce the constant mystery about the fate of the statue and lack of action to return it back to Egypt,” Magda Sakr, an Egyptian citizen residing in London, told Youm7.
The protesters demanded that the planned exit of the statue out of the British territories should be stopped before the end of four-month export ban on the statue.
On March 30, British Culture Minister Ed Vaizey issued a four-month temporary export ban on the limestone figure following a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA,) administered by the Arts Council England, the BBC reported Monday.
The protesters voiced their concerns that the unknown buyer could remove it from British territories and keep it in an unknown place; they raised signs against the sale of the statue, chanting “Egyptian history not for sale.”
Video (the protest)