Egyptian pharoah’s statue found in trash after two weeks

CAIRO - A limestone statue of Egyptian pharoah Akhenaten, one of the eight artefacts stolen during the uprising that brought down president Hosni Mubarak, has been found in a trash heap two weeks after it was purloined and has been returned to Cairo’s national museum.

The ministry of antiquities said Thursday that the limestone statue of King Akhenaten, father of boy King Tutankhamun, has been returned to the museum, after looters broke into the museum amid massive demonstrations that led to Mubarak’s ouster.

The statue was returned by a professor at the American University in Cairo after one of his family members found it next to some trash, Xinhua reported.

The statue was returned Wednesday night to an archaeological committee, which asserted the statue was intact, except for its other part, an offering table, which was found separately inside the museum.

The committee also confirmed the authenticity of the statue.

Tarek el-Awdi, director general of the Egyptian National Museum, said the seven-cm tall statue will be subject to a restoration process before it is displayed again.

In another report, the ministry said several archaeological sites have been vandalised. The tomb of Hetep-Ka in Cairo’s Saqqara area was broken into and the false door was stolen along with objects stored in the tomb.