Art collector loses lawsuit over ancient Egyptian coffin mask
An art collector from Rhineland-Palatinate has lost a lawsuit against the NRW state government over a 2000-year-old Egyptian coffin mask and a 3500-year-old brooch. The NRW Ministry of Culture was right to seize the coffin mask and brooch when they were imported into Germany, the Düsseldorf Administrative Court ruled on Friday. It could not be ruled out that both objects had been discovered during looted excavations in Egypt and then illegally taken out of the country.
The coffin mask is undoubtedly a national cultural asset of Egypt that falls under the Cultural Protection Act. According to the expert opinion, the mask was produced in a region that is now part of Egypt's territory and where looted excavations took place between 2011 and 2017. As the coffin mask was first auctioned in Paris in 2017, it was obvious that it came from looted excavations.
The plaintiff said that he had assumed that the mask had been in the private possession of a US American since the 1970s. The court took a similar view of the brooch. The plaintiff was 80-year-old Dirk Gemünden from Ingelheim in Rhineland-Palatinate. Together with his wife, he set up a foundation and the "Obentraut 3" museum, where the items were to be exhibited.
In spring 2020, he bought three art objects at an auction in the USA. Gemünden won the third object: In the case of an almost 2,500-year-old coffin plaque, he was able to prove that it did not fall under the Cultural Protection Act.
The 80-year-old said he was prepared to return the mask to Egypt and suggested that "before it disappears into some storage facility - like so many other objects - it should be exhibited in the museum until it is finally returned".
Judge Andreas Heusch was open to the proposal. The Cultural Protection Act expressly permits this. The representative of the state said that they would be happy to pass on the proposal (Ref.: 1 K 4764/20, 1 K 4762/20, 1 K 4655/20).
Upon import in May 2020, the historical artifacts were confiscated by customs and then seized by the NRW Ministry of Culture on the basis of the 2016 Cultural Protection Act. In May 2021, the Federal Foreign Office informed the Egyptian embassy of this. The Cultural Protection Act is intended to help protect national cultural assets and prevent their illegal import and export.
The history of looted excavations in Egypt has often involved the illegal export of cultural artifacts, such as the ancient Egyptian coffin mask and brooch in this case. The development of archaeological processes and laws aimed at protecting national cultural assets, like the Cultural Protection Act in Germany, have become crucial in preventing such occurrences.
Source: www.dpa.com
