The existence of ancient civilizations in the Middle East has always been a phenomenal discovery. Beyond the civilizations that kept their heritage and retained some level of influence from those antique periods, the ancient Egyptian civilization was always at the forefront. From the unification of the two kingdoms in the Early Dynastic Period up until the invasion of the Kingdom by the Persian Achaemenid Empire under Darius the third, we see how it echoes through time.

Important achievements of that period relied heavily on farming, architecture, mythology, military, language, and perhaps most importantly, art.

Ancient Egyptian art, which can showcase itself in various ways, captured the attention of a lot of people. From private patrons to museums, archeologists and historians rushed into Egypt to seek the wonderful civilization that once stretched the Nile.

But with such fame also came crime.

Antique smuggling refers to the illegal transportation of ancient artifacts for the purposes of profit making. Largely wealthy art collectors and national museums pay huge sums of money to collective groups, such as the Dib-Simonian network, who were found guilty of smuggling a rare Sarcophagus out of Egypt and sold for millions.

Fortunately, such rare ancient artifacts are currently being re-discovered and returned back to Egypt through large investigations by the US authorities with the Egyptian government.

Known as the “Green Coffin” the Sarcophagus was that of an ancient Egyptian priest named  Ankhenmaat. He was a priest of the late period of ancient Egypt from the reign of the last Pharoah all the way to the coming of Alexander the Great.