Mummy for sale for $10m

2005-12-27 21:06

Cairo - Egyptian authorities arrested the owner of a souvenir shop near the pyramids plateau after receiving a tip that he had tried to sell a mummy for $10m, said a source from the Tourism and Antiquities police on Tuesday.

Shop owner Ahmed al-Jabari was arrested on Monday after trying to sell items dating to the Pharoanic era, but on inspecting the premises police found no sign of the mummy in a sarcophagus that he had allegedly offered to sell earlier.

Police seized from al-Jabari 126 items believed to be Pharaonic antiquities, among them 27 necklaces, the most important of which was made from gold and designed in the shape of a bird, alongside 18 amulets.

In another incident of antiquities-related malfeasance, police took into custody on Monday a group of antiquities vendors who were conducting illegal digs in the desert near Minya, 250km south of Cairo.

Among those taken into custody was a police officer. The number of those arrested was not being released.

- SAPA