A stolen fragment of a 3,400-year-old stone statue of Ramses II was returned to the Egyptian government by Swiss culture official Carine Bachmann during a ceremony at the Egyptian Embassy in Bern Monday.
The fragment was part of a group statue showing the seated pharaoh with assembled ancient Egyptian gods and was stolen from the temple complex of Ramesses II in the sacred city of Abydos in the late 1980s or early 1980s. 1990s, according to a press release from the Swiss Ministry of Culture. The ministry said the stone fragment was imported into Switzerland after stops in several other countries and was recovered in criminal proceedings in the canton of Geneva.
The restitution “underlines the joint commitment of Switzerland and Egypt in the fight against the illegal trafficking of heritage, which was reinforced by a bilateral agreement on the import and return of cultural heritage in 2011”, indicates the communicated.
Ramses II (c. 1303 BC-1213 BC), also known as Ramses the Great, is considered one of the most powerful and greatest rulers of the New Empire of Egypt and would have lived until at least the age of 90.
