Egypt museum gets back five stolen artefacts

Troops and police have recovered five artefacts stolen from the Egyptian Museum during a revolt that toppled the country’s government, according to the antiquities council.

The council said in a statement that four bronze statues of ancient Egyptian deities and a bronze sceptre stolen on January 28 have been restored to the museum. Thirty-seven artefacts are still missing.

“Four of the recovered pieces were in good condition,” the statement said, but one statue of a deity in the form of a ram was broken into pieces.

Robbers raided several warehouses around the country, including one in the Egyptian Museum, after an uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak gave way to looting and insecurity.

An antiquities official said last week that 800 relics stolen by armed robbers from a warehouse east of Cairo were still missing.

Roughly 300 artefacts, which include pieces from Pharaonic, Roman and Islamic periods, were recovered, he said.