Kuwait City: A statue which was seized last Friday at Kuwait International Airport turned out to be a genuine Pharaonic artifact.
A tripartite committee including the customs, the Egyptian Embassy and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature examined the statue and confirmed its authenticity.
The officers working at the air cargo terminal discovered the 170-centimeter-tall artifact as they were scanning a shipment of office furniture sent from Egypt.
A Kuwaiti citizen who was present then at the airport to clear the consignment with the statue professionally hidden inside was arrested pending investigation.
A high-level Egyptian specialized archaeological delegation arrived in Kuwait to further examine the statue and bring it back Cairo.
The General Directorate of Customs had seized the artifact to the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Literature to determine its origin and historical authenticity.
Kuwait is a signatory of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.