The 6,000-pound red granite lion symbolizes the power of the Egyptian Pharaoh. But Mary Ellen Soles, curator of ancient art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, said the sculpture reminds her of “a big kitty cat.”

It’s the first thing people will encounter when visiting “Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from the British Museum.”

Soles pointed out the big cat’s casual pose. One front paw is crossed over another and his tail curls around the front of his body. There’s a benign expression on his face.

Soles noted the “acutely observed naturalism,” such as the animal’s ribs and a pouch of sagging skin incorporated into the sculpture...

The exhibition catalogue can be found here: , Edna R. Russmann, Nigel Strudwick, T.G.H. James, University of Washington Press, 2006, pp. 136.

Temples, tombs and more, Mike Wilder, The Times News, North Carolina, USA, ...

A love for mummies is not uncommon, but a love for figuring out the mysteries that surround their deaths is not an easy task.

Just ask , a man whose love for mummies has taken him halfway around the world to discover the mystery of a mummy known as Unknown Man E.

Brier recently spoke as part of a series held at Camden County College's Dennis Flyer Theatre. The lectures dealt entirely with the mysteries and history of Ancient Egypt and brought to the college experts on the subject from all around the world.

Not originally scheduled to speak that night, Brier, whose wife was unable to speak due to an illness, filled in and provided a glimpse into the mysteries surrounding an ancient mummy that had been labelled only by the name Unknown Man E...

Speaker gets wrapped up in talk on mummies, Drew Ciccotelli, The Philadelphia Record Breeze, Pennsylvania, USA, April 26, 2007.

Previously:

The Mystery of Unknown Man E, February 16, 2006.

Italy will return to Libya an ancient Roman statue taken from its former North African colony, a gesture Rome hopes will help its own campaign to retrieve allegedly looted antiquities from museums worldwide.

The 2nd century statue of the goddess Venus was found in 1913 by Italian troops near the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday. It is now housed in Rome's National Roman Museum...

Libyan authorities requested the statue in 1989, but a protracted judicial battle ensued with a group that considered the work part of Italy's cultural heritage. Last week, a court ruled in favour of returning the statue to Tripoli, the ministry said in a statement. No date has been set for the return.

The ruling sets "a useful precedent to promote the return, in favour of Italy, of antiquities that were looted by other states," the ministry said.

Italy is aggressively campaigning to recover antiquities it says were smuggled out of the country and sold to museums worldwide...

Three Associated Press photographs can be found here on Yahoo! News' Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

Italy to Return Ancient Statue to Libya, Ariel David, AP via The Guardian, UK, April 24, 2007.

The dramatic scaling down of Scotland Yard's once renowned arts and antique squad has left organised criminals free to plunder the nation's heritage, according to a leading fine art insurer.

Police have sought private money to finance the squad after its annual budget of some £300,000 was halved earlier this year. But the Guardian has learned that Scotland Yard has failed to secure a penny from insurers or auction houses, after months of discussions.

Britain's art market is second only to the US and experts claim up to £200m worth of stolen art and antiques are sold in the UK each year. Interpol estimates that art theft is the fourth largest organised crime after drugs, people trafficking and arms...

[S]uccesses include the uncovering of a multimillion pound British smuggling operation in which precious antiquities and archaeological artefacts were stolen from Egypt, some of which were sold at Sotheby's...

Met's art theft squad has to go cap in hand, Sandra Laville, The Guardian, UK, April 21, 2007.

Seven years after being given the go-ahead, the Al-Arish National Museum is ready to open...

North Sinai's National Day celebration had a different flavour this year. Apart from the inauguration of new urban development projects that usually mark the event, the city's long-awaited LE50 million National Museum is at last finished.

The two-storey Al-Arish National Museum (ANM) will make a huge visual difference to North Sinai's capital city. The temple- shaped, honey-coloured edifice has finally been revealed after being hidden for almost a decade under ugly iron scaffolding, wooden panels and plastic sheets.

Although plans for the museum were drawn up in 1994 — shortly after the return of Sinai's archaeological collection taken by Israel during their occupation — the foundation stone was laid only in 1998. Lack of funds subsequently placed the project on hold for nearly four years. However in 2002 the Ministry of Culture put Egypt's museums at the top of its priority list in an attempt to preserve the country's priceless treasures, both stored and newly-discovered. The plan was to create the optimum environment to display the treasures, and thus release the pressure on overstuffed major museums. In line with the ministry's plan, steps were taken towards the museum's completion...

The gates of history, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Issue No. 842, April 26 - May 02, 2007.

I can’t wait for that touring King Tut exhibit I keep hearing about to come to New York.

Yes, but the closest that “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” will get to us is Philadelphia — it’s there through September 30 [2007].

Why’s that?

Well, Egypt’s antiquities director, Zahi Hawass, pitched it to a number of New York museums, and they all turned it down.

I get the sense it’s kind of a hypefest.

Perhaps. It’s atypical in that most blockbuster exhibits make at least gestures toward an intellectual conceit. Here, the wall labels are pretty basic, and the idea is mostly Look at all this awesome gold stuff. The museum’s shop even sells knockoffs of Hawass’s hat.

Is it not worth the trip, then?

No, it is — you just have to be willing to do a little reading on your own beforehand. If you do, you can take a lot away from the show. And of course it’ll interest kids...

The Gist: “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs”, Christopher Bonanos, New York Magazine, New York, USA, April 30, 2007.

I find it hard to imagine anyone visiting Egypt for the first time, no matter how well read on the subject, and not being impressed. It is amazing so many people spent decades building pyramids or digging, carving and painting elaborate underground vaults, long before some civilisations had cottoned on as to the potential of the wheel.

The legacy of buildings they have left is remarkable and we stare and wonder at it all. Yet the republican pulse still beats deep inside and I just feel all that ability, knowledge of higher mathematics, craftsmanship, energy and grotesque amounts of labour could have been used for the general good.

Instead thousands of workers were directed at the behest of a succession of deluded leaders who actually believed they were to become one of the gods, and despite this ethereal elevation, needed their worldly goods in the hereafter.

Not everyone swallowed this, however, for it is believed the tombs were cleaned out by robbers within 70 years of them being sealed...

A bit of envy for the simple life, Oliver Phillips, This is London, UK, April 20, 2007.