Seven Egyptian Antiquities Targeted for Repatriation as Grand Egyptian Museum Opens

The upcoming inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in November 2025, which has a budget of one billion dollars, has intensified calls for Western institutions to return ancient Egyptian treasures. Among the seven significant items mentioned are: the Rosetta Stone, housed in the British Museum since 1802; the Dendera Zodiac at the Louvre; the Tarkhan Dress, unearthed in 1913 at the Petrie Museum; the Bust of Ankhhaf, presented to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1927; the Sarcophagus of Seti I at Sir John Soane's Museum, discovered in 1817; the Statue of Hemiunu at the Roemer-und-Pelizaeus-Museum, found in 1912; and the Bust of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum, with repatriation requests tracing back to King Farouk in 1946. Zahi Hawass champions the cause for repatriation, bolstered by recent returns from the US, Netherlands, and Greece.