Egypt denies exit of artifacts to Israel for scanning

CAIRO (Arabnews): Egypt has rejected recent news reports about the transfer of Pharaonic artifacts from an Egyptian museum to Israel for CT scanning.

A senior official confirmed that no artifacts had left Egypt for examination or study.

Moamen Othman, head of the museums section at Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, denied recent claims on social media about the transfer of pharaonic coffin covers from an Egyptian museum to Israel for a CT scan in a hospital.

The reports were completely untrue, he said, adding that no artifacts had left Egypt.

According to a statement from the ministry of tourism and antiquities, the Egyptian official appealed to the media — as well as to social media users — to investigate accuracy and objectivity before publishing such information.

Publishing information not based on facts led to confusion among citizens, Othman said.

He called for better communication with the concerned authorities to verify reports before publication.

Israeli media websites earlier claimed that “coffin covers that are thousands of years old were transferred from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for a CT scan at a medical center in a complex operation that took several months to organize.”

The i24 website claimed: “Two sarcophagi burial containers from ancient Egypt underwent CT scans at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, in Jerusalem. The nearly 3,000-year-old artifacts were transferred from the Israel Museum after months of careful planning.”

The site, which displayed pictures with its report, also reported that “the complex procedure required teams from both the hospital and the museum to take part in the planning, which required highly specialized delivery. Their objective was to determine the artistic process that the craftsman undertook in making the ritual item.”

Separately, the Great Egyptian Museum has had more than 50 percent of its heaviest antiquities installed, officials said.