Source: AUC

The American University in Cairo (AUC) announced last week that one of its storehouses located beneath its old campus was raided. An initial inventory has revealed that 145 authentic pieces and 50 replicas were stolen, Zahi Hawass, Egyptian Minister for Antiquities Affairs told media outlets.

The items stolen were never on public display due to lack of space and the strict security measures needed, according to the AUC.

The artefacts lost include items from ancient Egypt as well as Coptic and Islamic origin. In a statement released, the AUC said they are “deeply disturbed by what appears to have been the theft of antiquities in its custody.”

The university said they are cooperating with the official judicial investigation, “as well as conducting an internal investigation of its own.”

When contacted, the AUC declined to give any further information or to comment on anything, but said they will make the findings of its investigations public once it is complete.

The items are legally the property of the AUC and are registered with the government as part of Egypt’s national heritage collection. The artefacts were discovered during excavations in 1946 when the law back then said that excavators could keep a share of their findings.

This comes as the latest in a series of thefts that have taken place in different places in Egypt following a security vacuum after the January 25 Revolution. Several pieces were either stolen or broken within the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities during the revolution. A few days after the president was ousted several storehouses around the area of the Giza Pyramids were raided and stolen.