Antiquities Coalition founder: ‘This isn’t just about your history being stolen’

Inside the multi-million-dollar industry of trafficking in ancient artifacts 

Deborah Lehr as featured on Arab News

When Kim Kardashian attended the Met Gala in 2018, little did she know she was about to trigger a global investigation into the illicit trade in antiquities. The image of her next to a gold sarcophagus of the high-ranking Egyptian priest Nedjemankh went viral and soon attracted the attention of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. An investigation into its provenance followed, leading prosecutors to the 2011 Egyptian revolution.  

During the unrest, the sarcophagus had been looted from Minya in Upper Egypt, smuggled to Paris, restored, and eventually sold to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for $4 million.