CAIRO, Egypt and the United States renewed their cultural property protection agreement for another five years on Monday, extending restrictions on imports of Egyptian antiquities into the US and strengthening cooperation against illicit trafficking. The partnership has helped recover more than 5,000 artifacts over the past decade, according to the US Embassy in Cairo.
US Chargé d’Affaires Robert Silverman and Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, signed the renewal at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Cairo.
Egypt became the first Middle Eastern country to conclude such an agreement with Washington in 2016. Renewed and expanded in 2021, the arrangement enables both countries to identify, intercept and recover illegally traded cultural property while supporting investigations and prosecutions.
Among the recovered treasures are more than 5,000 Coptic and Greek manuscripts and artifacts, the three-metre-long coffin lid of a 26th Dynasty priest and a stone stela from the Temple of Hatshepsut missing since 1930.
In August 2026, the FBI returned another 48 artifacts, including amulets, carved figures and burial objects dating from Egypt’s Pharaonic, Roman and Coptic periods.
The renewed agreement also extends cooperation beyond recovering stolen antiquities to protecting archaeological sites and modernising museum documentation.
A US-supported initiative launched in September 2024 is helping Egypt develop a unified artifact-tracking system covering five major museums, including the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
Over the next five years, both governments intend to expand archaeological protection, law-enforcement coordination and cultural, scientific and educational exchanges
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