Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Aftermath Of The Egyptian Revolution: The Looting And Theft Of Its Historical Treasures. UPDATE: FOX News Is Reporting Egyptian Museum On Fire

A building in flames adjacent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. AFP/Getty

Museums On High Alert For Ancient Egyptian Loot -- Reuters

(Reuters) - International museums are on high alert for looted Egyptian artifacts and some archaeologists have even offered to fly to the country to help safeguard its ancient treasures, museums said Wednesday.

Egypt has been rocked by an unprecedented nine days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule, and fears are high for the country's priceless heritage after looters broke into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last week.

The specter of the fall of Baghdad in 2003 looms large in the minds of Egyptologists, when thousands millennia-old artifacts were stolen or smashed by looters in the chaos following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Read more ....

My Comment: It will only be after this crisis is over, that Egypt will wake-up to what has happened to some of their historical treasures. My prediction ....a great deal of soul searching will be the result .... and years from now this political revolution will be a footnote .... but everyone will know that scores of Egyptian warehouses and museums were attacked and looted during this period, and an unknown amount of treasure will have disappeared .... probably lost forever.

Update: FOX News is now reporting that the Egyptian Museum is on fire.

Update: Egypt: Pyramids, King Tut and Museums Caught in Crisis -- ABC News

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