‘MESR Umm El Dunia — Egypt is the mother of the world’, said Egyptian Ambassador Hassan Hanafy Mahmoud El-Laithy yesterday at the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, quoting an old proverb from his country.

The occasion was the handover by the Australian Government Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, George Brandis, of 10 types of artefact seized from Xanthos Antiquities in 2013 by the Ministry for the Arts and Australian Federal Police at the request of Egyptian authorities and processed under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 (Cth).

Although some people present today expressed the opinion that the government was being especially vigilant in the wake of the “Dancing Shiva” problem at the NGA, in fact Australian and Egyptian authorities have a history of collaboration in pursuit of the return of items of cultural significance to Egypt. In 2011 a collection of 122 ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman artefacts, some dating from the fourth millennium BC, found in auction halls in Melbourne, were returned to the Arab Republic of Egyptian Government under the same act.

Ambassador El-Laithy reminded those present of how, historically, Egypt had brought civilisation into the world, saying, “with all our modern achievements we cannot match their technology” as he reflected on the building of the pyramids and other related achievements of the ancient world.

It was particularly appropriate, he said, also quoting Sen Brandis to the effect that “art is the spirit of nations”, that these were artistically-created objects like a wooden hand belonging to an anthropoid coffin, small statuettes known as shabtis and amulets to protect the deceased, as it was these which bonded nations, both nationally and internationally.

The ambassador pointed out a small framed piece of Church textile featuring a Coptic cross, telling those present that the ancient Christian culture of the country, in which both Jesus and Moses had lived, was “very integrated to the Egyptian identity” both spiritually and in its cultural diversity.

Sen Brandis described the handover as “a splendid and significant occasion,” saying that since a schoolboy he had been fascinated by Egyptian history which he said had “a rightful place in the hearts of the Egyptian people.”

While he said he had expected to see the funerary objects from the Pharaonic period, it to have been fascinated by the piece of Coptic textile, coming as it did from one of the earliest lands of Christian practice.

In his speech Sen Brandis reaffirmed Australia’s friendship with the Egyptian government, noting that Prime Minister Tony Abbott was a “great friend” of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

In handing over a copy of the legal documentation for the handover, he said that as Minister for the Arts it was his duty to oversee legislation which allowed the return of cultural objects in a gesture that saw a young and an ancient culture joining together.

Further information about the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 maybe be found at arts.gov.au