Egyptian authorities announced on Tuesday January 10 that they had arrested three people who had tried to steal a 10-ton millennial statue of Pharaoh Ramses II using a crane.
The prosecution said in a statement that it had “ordered the detention of three defendants for four days pending investigation”accusing them “for having attempted to steal a pharaonic statue” in the ancient southern city of Aswan, some 675 kilometers south of Cairo, on the Nile. According to the statement, police reported that “three people were arrested in possession of manual digging tools and heavy equipment, a crane”which they had used in an attempt to “raise the statue and excavate the antiquities of the area”.
“A weight of about 10 tons”
The Aswan Antiquities Authority has proven “seniority (of the statue) and attributed it to Ramses II, with a weight of about 10 tons”, the statement added. The prosecutor’s office ordered the police to“promptly investigate others involved with the suspects in the crime.”
Ramses II, one of the most famous pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, reigned for 67 years. He was known as a great warrior and a prolific builder who ordered the construction of temples throughout Egypt. Over the past decade, Egypt has recovered around 29,000 antiquities that were illegally taken abroad.