Statue of King Tut, which claims to have been stolen, sells for $ 6 million

The auction house sale by auction house Christie's comes one day after the Ministry of foreign affairs and the Ministry of Egyptian Antiquities issued a joint statement condemning the company for having proceeded with the sale.

Cairo:

A 3,000-year-old bust of King Tutankhamen, an Egyptian boy, was auctioned Thursday in London for nearly $ 6 million, despite allegations by the Egyptian government that it was looted and defrauded.

The auction house sale by auction house Christie's comes one day after the Ministry of foreign affairs and the Ministry of Egyptian Antiquities issued a joint statement condemning the company for having proceeded with the sale.

They claimed that the sale was not valid because the auction house had not been able to verify the ownership of the 11-inch brown quartzite statue of the Pharaoh, widely referred to in the world as King Tut.

"There is no ethics here," said Zahi Hawass, former Egyptian Minister for Antiquities, in a telephone interview on Friday. "Christie's has no proof that this head of Tutankhamun has left Egypt legally. They didn't offer us any kind of paper showing the legality of this statue.

"It's a black day for Christie's."

He and other Egyptian antiquities officials, including the current minister, are scheduled to meet next week to discuss the possibility of bringing a lawsuit in London to bring the statue back to Egypt, said Hawass.

In a statement, Christie's stated that the statue had never been investigated and would never have been sold if there were legitimate concerns. Egypt, the company said, did not express its concern when the bust was publicly displayed for several years or was part of a private collection that had last sold for 3.7 million dollars in 2016.

"We recognize that historic objects can give rise to complex discussions about the past. However, our role today is to continue to provide a transparent and legitimate marketplace that meets the highest standards for the transfer of objects," said the auction house.

Christie's didn't reveal the buyer's name.

Egypt's demands for the cancellation of the auction and the return of the statue to its own collection of objects from Tutankhamun's tomb came as the country tried to revive its tourism industry, an important source of employment and foreign exchange. Political instability following the Arab Spring rebellion in the country, which overthrew long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and a series of more recent terrorist attacks have deterred many tourists.

The Egyptian authorities stated that the statue was probably stolen in the 1970s from the Temple of Karnak, in the Egyptian city of Luxor, near the Tomb of the young king in the valley of the Kings. In the early 1980s, Egypt adopted legislation to prevent the removal of ancient objects from the country.

Christie's claims to be able to track bust ownership over the past five decades, from the time the bust was purchased from the German aristocrat Prinz Wilhelm von Thurn und Taxis between 1973 and 1974. Egypt claims that the auction house did not show any documents proving ownership .

Tutankhamun became pharaoh at the age of 9 and ruled until his death, at the age of 19, probably around 1323 BC. his remains were unearthed in 1922 with thousands of ancient objects, including a gold mask of the King, which remains to this day the most important and best known archaeological discovery in Egypt. The collection has travelled to museums in the United States and around the world and is currently in Paris.

"You are not selling an ordinary King," said Hawass. "You are selling a very famous King, a king who has conquered the hearts of people all over the world."