Countering

Looting Activities in Post-2011 Egypt
to smuggle the object outside of the country. Many of the people involved in looting are
not doing it to provide food for the table or to continue schooling: unfortunately, the
larger percentage keeps digging out of greed. There is a strong market for these objects,
and wealth is easily acquired.
Religion and superstition
Religion plays an important role in Egyptian society. Most belonging to both the Muslim
majority and the Christian minority are deeply religious. Unfortunately, with the Wahhabi
influence on Egyptian Islam, many fatwas were issued against Ancient Egypt, and stated
that trade in antiquities is not a religious fault as long as you do not sell statues insofar
as they are probable idols. A famous cleric, Shaykh Muhammad Hassan has issued the
fatwa in 2010 and many have taken it seriously. Due to media pressure, Hassan has
withdrawn his fatwa (Abdelsalam 2010). In 2011, another Shaykh called Muhammad
Shahhat of the Salafi Da’wa in Alexandria declared that the Ancient Egyptian culture is
rotten and statues should be covered in wax (Sabri 2015).
Although the Coptic minority usually takes pride in its heritage and intimate bond
with Ancient Egypt, many of conservative priests affirm that the Ancient Egyptian
civilization was evil – the persecutors of Moses. This creates aversion and distrust in this
heritage. As a consequence, many in the Coptic community are also involved in dealing
in Coptic antiquities.
Most looters bring shaykhs famed for their magical powers to tell them where to dig
for antiquities. Regular villagers who cannot afford a geo-sonar will beseech a shaykh
to use his powers to locate the ‘treasure’. In Dayr Abu Hennes, Mallawi in Minya, near
the rock-cut Coptic remains of Ansina, Coptic looters asked a Muslim shaykh from the
nearby village to guide them in their excavations. (al-Bagoushi 2013).
Antiquities, market and laundering
The market in Egyptian antiquities has flourished since 2011. Many Ancient Egyptian
objects reached auctions and collectors in Europe and the United states, while many of
the Islamic ones went to the Gulf Area 3 . Several Biblical scholarly institutions, particularly
in the United States, have bought Coptic manuscripts and objects of a lower value have
been sold on e-commerce website ebay as well as other websites in plentiful quantities
(Fig. 7). This has given antiquities traders a huge advantage, inasmuch as the tracking of
their channels has become very difficult.
In addition, numerous auctions selling antiquities have laundered their certificates of
origin. The best example is the double limestone statue sold in Belgium. This statue was
illegally sold along with another serpentine statue: the sale took place in an auction with
papers that attested it came from another old collection (Abdelzaher 2014; Billen 2014:
20-21). Most Egyptian objects on the antiquities market and sold as ‘old collections’
come from illicit excavations with false documents.
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