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On November 2, Prime Minister Dick Schoof of the Netherlands announced that his country would return a 3,500-year-old sculpture to Egypt by the end of this year. A recent investigation concluded that the Egyptian artifact had been stolen and illegally exported to the Netherlands, most likely amid the unrest of the Arab Spring either in 2011 or 2012.
The stone bust depicts a high-ranking official from the dynasty of Pharaoh Thutmose III, who reigned from 1479 to 1425 BCE. According to Schoof, the “historical cultural artifact [was] confiscated at [the TEFAF] art fair” in Maastricht in 2022, where it was being sold for €190,000 (about $220,000) by a Swiss gallery. Once an anonymous source tipped off the authorities about the bust’s dubious origins, the dealer voluntarily surrendered the artifact for confiscation. A subsequent investigation traced the bust back to a Spanish dealer who was arrested and charged with money laundering, smuggling, and falsifying documents in 2024.
“The Netherlands is committed both nationally and internationally to ensuring the return of heritage to its original owners,” the Dutch government remarked in a statement.
Schoof announced the bust’s repatriation during his visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum’s (GEM) official opening in Giza. GEM has been under construction for more than 20 years and has faced countless setbacks due to funding issues, logistical hurdles, the pandemic, nearby wars, and multiple revolutions. The sprawling, 120-acre museum cost over $1 billion and contains 100,000 artifacts, some 20,000 of which have never been on public view before. Notably, GEM also houses King Tutankhamun’s tomb, whose contents are displayed in their entirety for the first time since their original discovery in 1922.
“This is Egypt’s gift to the world,” Nevine El-Aref, media adviser to the Minister of Tourism and Antiques, told CBS News. “It’s a dream come true, after all these years, that the GEM is finally and officially open.”
Even so, Egyptologists and scholars hope that GEM’s opening will inspire greater efforts toward repatriation. “On the occasion of the inauguration, Egypt should start asking officially for the restitution and repatriation of the different objects that were looted in the 19th and 20th centuries,” Dr. Monica Hanna, dean of the Arab Academy of Science and Technology, told the BBC.
The Rosetta Stone, one of ancient Egypt’s most renowned artifacts and the key to deciphering hieroglyphics, is at the heart of this battle. The stone is currently held by the British Museum in London.
“We don’t want every Egyptian artifact abroad,” Hanna clarified in the Times. “We want those essential to Egypt’s narrative.”
Prime Minister Dick Schoof of the Netherlands has announced the repatriation of a 3,500-year-old stone bust after determining it had been looted from Egypt in 2011 or 2012.
Dick Schoof, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, in 2025. (Photo: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken via Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0)
Sources: Netherlands to return stolen ancient sculpture to Egypt; The Netherlands Will Return Looted Pharoah-Era Artifact to Egypt; Netherlands says it will return stolen 3,500-year-old sculpture to Egypt after Grand Egyptian Museum opening; Netherlands to return 3,500-year-old sculpture to Egypt; Dutch Authorities Return Stolen Ancient Bust to Egypt; Now give us back Rosetta Stone and other treasures, Egyptians demand
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