The current climate has encouraged criminals to brazenly promote their activities without fear of law. The antiquities trade is now being openly brokered on the Internet, with seller, buyer and broker comfortably discussing price and details concerning ancient items—starting with Pharaonic monuments—which are more in demand—ending with the Ptolemaic, Assyrian, Roman, Coptic and Islamic Antiquities.

Cairo, Egypt —After two massive revolutions toppled two presidents in the dream for a better country, the Egypt of today lives in confusion and chaos. With the focus on the ongoing prosecution of terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood, the smuggling and looting of Egyptian antiquities gets a pass.

And on the same Forum you can find other offers of Roman, Ptolemaic and Jewish antiquities. The admin-named “professional expert” requires buyers to communicate with him on e-mail to ensure confidentiality and complete the deal away from prying eyes!

For example, someone named ‘Saif’ offers Roman antiques from the Renaissance era, including a 40×25 cm, 3 kg statue of a Roman Prince holding a spear in his left hand and holding a pot of water in the other.

One of the largest sites involved in this illicit trade is Egyptian Monuments Forum. Launched in 2011, its members can offer their antiques stolen from archaeological sites, Museums or through digging. Forum owners and supervisors act as mediators, for a commission of 5% of the price agreed. The Forum prevents any phone numbers or emails on the site, to ensure control of the sales process under the supervision of the site.

Under the title “only serious” you find someone called “Amado”... Who says “they” are ready for any Pharaonic monuments whatever the quantity, with a number of responses urging him to communicate with them because they “have business”!

In fact, it’s not only about small or portable antiquities—but there is more than one member offering the contents of “full Pharaonic graves” for sale!

On another website named Homeland Treasures Forum”, under the heading “Pharaonic things for sale”, we find a strange dialogue between members. the user “Unnecessary” presents his goods as Egyptian antiquities, from the Upper Egypt area, specifically Luxor, explaining that the problem of buyers in Egypt after the revolution, is that in the past, buyers worked under the former regime’s protection. But after the revolution, foreign buyers lacked guarantees and safety they had through Jamal Mubarak under the cover of import and export companies or travel agencies.



While “Amado” reveals quite frankly—or rudely—that buyers are lined up from foreign embassies and with the expertise to check whether the offered antiquities are real or fake… offering door-to-door deliveries to embassy workers!

I asked specialists in this field about the spread of this growing trade boldly conducted in the open. Dr. Mokhtar Kasbani, Head of Islamic Archaeology in the Faculty of Antiquities, Cairo University, confirmed that there are worries in the field of archaeology via excavation works carried out by citizens at large, digging under ancient houses in the hope of finding antiquities. This is a spinoff of the lawlessness that now prevails in Egypt. Kasbani adds that the funding for terrorist groups comes from both trading in drugs and antiquities.

Kasbani emphasizes that despite the spread of this trade, the Tourism and Antiquities police are fighting back, especially at ports and borders. It may be possible to find the monuments and store them but it is difficult to get them out of the country.

Kasbani declares that there is already a lot of concern about the role of foreign embassy workers potentially involved, but no proof on the books other than an incident of five years ago, when a French embassy employee tried smuggling antiquities to France, but was detected with the French government providing a formal apology to Egypt.

The Trade of Egyptian Antiquities