Egypt gets its looted coffin back!

Egypt exhibited the golden coffin of an ancient Egyptian priest that was returned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Apparently, it was discovered that it had been looted and illegally sold. The finely decorated coffin is inscribed with the name Nedjemankh, a priest of the ram-headed god Heryshef of Herakleopolis, and dates to the first century B.C. The coffin had been buried in Egypt for 2,000 years before it was stolen from the country's Minya region in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising. Officials say it was smuggled through several countries by an international trafficking ring before being sold to an unwitting Metropolitan Museum two years ago for $4 million. It went on display there for six months before judicial officials presented evidence that its ownership history documents were forgeries. The wooden coffin is not large, but its gold casing carries fine hieroglyphic inscriptions and is embedded with black crystal, ivory and lapis lazuli. It is due to go on public display in due course at Cairo's National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. Egypt has recovered several hundred artifacts annually in recent years as it tries to bring back items it says were smuggled or illegally sold. Fun fact Egyptian men and women both wore makeup. It was thought to have healing powers, plus it helped protect their skin from the sun.