ABSTRACT
The Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Egypt at the time, Professor Dr Zahi Hawass, sent a letter on 24 June 2007 to the Chair of the ICOM Ethics Committee, Bernice Murphy, to alert her to possible ethical problems related to the acquisition of the mummy mask of Ka-nefer-nefer by the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) in Missouri, USA. In addition, at the meeting of ICOM’s International Committee for Egyptology (CIPEG) during ICOM’s General Conference in Vienna, Mr Mohamed Abdel Fatah, Head of the Museums Section in the SCA at the time, presented a statement by the SCA, dated 20 August 2007, on the protection of Egyptian cultural heritage, with a special focus on this case as an example of ethical and legal issues being faced. 1
