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Egypt Parliament Acts to Confront Online Sale of Antiquities

An artifact that was displayed at foreign auctions. (Dr. Abdul Rahim Rayhan)
An artifact that was displayed at foreign auctions. (Dr. Abdul Rahim Rayhan)
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Egypt Parliament Acts to Confront Online Sale of Antiquities

An artifact that was displayed at foreign auctions. (Dr. Abdul Rahim Rayhan)
An artifact that was displayed at foreign auctions. (Dr. Abdul Rahim Rayhan)

The Egyptian parliament has taken new measures to confront the online sale of antiquities through social networking sites, based on a request submitted by a deputy who called for “decisive steps” to confront this phenomenon.

In his request, MP Hisham Hussein renewed warnings about the spread of websites selling antiquities on the Internet, saying that while some of these accounts offered fake items, others displayed genuine artifacts, including royal tombstones and coins.

Antiquities expert Dr. Abdel Rahim Rayhan, member of the Supreme Council of Culture, History and Antiquities Committee and head of the Campaign to Defend Egyptian Civilization, confirmed that the pieces offered for sale in public auctions or online sites have spread greatly since the January 2011 uprising, as a result of illegal excavation.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said: “Due to the huge amount of antiquities that have been secretly removed from excavations, websites that openly sell antiquities have spread.”

Rayhan stressed the need for an immediate intervention by the security authorities to monitor and track down the suspicious networks, who he said were linked to external gangs run by archaeologists, legal experts and marketing specialists and promote the sale and smuggling of antiquities.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior announced the seizure of several artifacts from individuals, as well as the arrest of a number of people selling archeological items through online platforms.

Antiquities Protection Law No. 117 of 1983 and its amendments regulate the work of archaeological excavations above ground, underground, and in Egyptian internal and territorial waters, under the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Rayhan stressed the need to take decisive measures to tighten control over online sales and track down the illegal merchants, including individuals collaborating with foreign networks, and to amend the Antiquities Protection Law to consider the crime of secret excavation as high treason.

UNESCO issued a report in 2020 saying that the antiquities trade is valued at about USD 10 billion every year, while art and antiquities are the third largest black market in the world after drugs and weapons.

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Gaza Heritage and Destruction on Display in Paris

This photograph shows antiques on display during the installation of the archaeological heritage exhibition "Treasures saved from Gaza - 5000 years of history" (Tresors sauves de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, on March 31, 2025. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
This photograph shows antiques on display during the installation of the archaeological heritage exhibition "Treasures saved from Gaza - 5000 years of history" (Tresors sauves de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, on March 31, 2025. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
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Gaza Heritage and Destruction on Display in Paris

This photograph shows antiques on display during the installation of the archaeological heritage exhibition "Treasures saved from Gaza - 5000 years of history" (Tresors sauves de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, on March 31, 2025. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
This photograph shows antiques on display during the installation of the archaeological heritage exhibition "Treasures saved from Gaza - 5000 years of history" (Tresors sauves de Gaza - 5000 ans d'histoire) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, on March 31, 2025. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

A new exhibition opening in Paris on Friday showcases archaeological artifacts from Gaza, once a major commercial crossroads between Asia and Africa, whose heritage has been ravaged by Israel's ongoing onslaught.

Around a hundred artifacts, including a 4,000-year-old bowl, a sixth-century mosaic from a Byzantine church and a Greek-inspired statue of Aphrodite, are on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe.

The rich and mixed collection speaks to Gaza's past as a cultural melting pot, but the show's creators also wanted to highlight the contemporary destruction caused by the war, sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023, AFP reported.

"The priority is obviously human lives, not heritage," said Elodie Bouffard, curator of the exhibition, which is titled "Saved Treasures of Gaza: 5,000 Years of History".

"But we also wanted to show that, for millennia, Gaza was the endpoint of caravan routes, a port that minted its own currency, and a city that thrived at the meeting point of water and sand," she told AFP.

One section of the exhibition documents the extent of recent destruction.

Using satellite image, the UN's cultural agency UNESCO has already identified damage to 94 heritage sites in Gaza, including the 13th-century Pasha's Palace.

Bouffard said the damage to the known sites as well as treasures potentially hidden in unexplored Palestinian land "depends on the bomb tonnage and their impact on the surface and underground".

"For now, it´s impossible to assess."

The attacks by Hamas militants on Israel in 2023 left 1,218 dead. In retaliation, Israeli operations have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated the densely populated territory.

The story behind "Gaza´s Treasures" is inseparable from the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

At the end of 2024, the Institut du Monde Arabe was finalising an exhibition on artifacts from the archaeological site of Byblos in Lebanon, but Israeli bombings on Beirut made the project impossible.

"It came to a sudden halt, but we couldn´t allow ourselves to be discouraged," said Bouffard.

The idea of an exhibition on Gaza´s heritage emerged.

"We had just four and a half months to put it together. That had never been done before," she explained.

Given the impossibility of transporting artifacts out of Gaza, the Institut turned to 529 pieces stored in crates in a specialized Geneva art warehouse since 2006. The works belong to the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank.

The Oslo Accords of 1993, signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, helped secure some of Gaza's treasures.

In 1995, Gaza´s Department of Antiquities was established, which oversaw the first archaeological digs in collaboration with the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem (EBAF).

Over the years, excavations uncovered the remains of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, the ancient Greek port of Anthedon, and a Roman necropolis - traces of civilizations spanning from the Bronze Age to Ottoman influences in the late 19th century.

"Between Egypt, Mesopotamian powers, and the Hasmoneans, Gaza has been a constant target of conquest and destruction throughout history," Bouffard noted.

In the 4th century BC, Greek leader Alexander the Great besieged the city for two months, leaving behind massacres and devastation.

Excavations in Gaza came to a standstill when Hamas took power in 2007 and Israel imposed a blockade.

Land pressure and rampant building in one of the world's most densely populated areas has also complicated archaeological work.

And after a year and a half of war, resuming excavations seems like an ever-more distant prospect.

The exhibition runs until November 2, 2025.