Azza Farouq, dean of Cairo University’s Faculty of Archaeology, has revealed that 3000 unregistered antiquities were found recently in the rest rooms of the faculty’s museum on campus. Preliminary reports said that the pieces are rarer than others displayed in major Egyptian or foreign museums, and that they have a high value. Farouq has requested the Giza Prosecution to investigate the matter and establish the reason for the negligence.

Twelve antiques dealers were arrested in Minya province by Police detectives cooperating with the Public Security Authority after they tried to sell artifacts taken from tombs. Major Gen. Ahmed Gamal, assistant Minister of Interior for public security, said that 12 antiques dealers in the city of Adwa were attempting to sell ten granite statues, 12 metal statues, a statue on a black granite base, and four scarabs.

The dismantlement of an international mummy and artifact smuggling ring by US authorities in July raised alarms about the status of stolen Egyptian artifacts in transnational black markets. The daily newspaper Metro-New York recently reported that three New York men were arrested for smuggling 2000-year-old Egyptian artifacts into the US from the United Arab Emirates by lying custom officials about the contents of their luggage.

The Egyptian police authority confiscated 22 archeological statutes from a suspect who was allegedly trying to make money from selling the artifacts.

Federal authorities announced on Wednesday that they had broken up an international ring that had been smuggling Egyptian antiquities into the United States. The items seized had a market value of $2.5 million and they include a Greco-Roman style sarcophagus, a nesting set of three sarcophagi that dates from about 664 to 552 B.C., and limestone figures. It is not clear when or how the objects were taken out of Egypt, but they have been authenticated and carbon dated.

A wanted Lebanese antiquities dealer has been arrested in Bulgaria over accusations he stole ancient Egyptian artefacts and slipped them out of the country in recent years, Egypt's Culture Ministry said on Thursday. Ali Abu Taam, arrested on Wednesday with help from Interpol, was accused of helping a convicted antiquities thief smuggle 280 artefacts out of Egypt by mislabelling them as glass bottles or hiding them in boxes of toys and electronics marked as exports.

An Australian teacher who stuffed his luggage with 2,000-year old animal mummies and religious figurines wrapped as gifts was arrested Wednesday, an Egyptian airport security official said.

Dayton police said someone stole an ancient Egyptian necklace from the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. The necklace, made from carnelian gems, was donated in the 1940s, but it is believed to be several thousand years old.

Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif issued a decree on the formation of a national committee for the restoration of illegally trafficked artifacts from Egypt. The committee is composed of 8 representatives from concerned ministries and agencies, along with a group of experts in the international law and antiquities.

Egypt has demanded the US to return 80 artifacts dating back to the pre-dynastic era, which were stolen by a US pilot during a visit to the country, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas said after he returned from the United States where he delivered his testimony in a case brought by Egypt against a US pilot accused of smuggling the artifacts from the country.