ish Museum there are large pieces of wall-paintings
broken out of Theban tombs. The famous inscription in the tomb of Anena
at Thebes, which was one of the most important texts of the early
XVIIIth Dynasty, was smashed to pieces several years ago to be sold in
small sections to museums; and the scholar to whom this volume is
dedicated was instrumental in purchasing back for us eleven of the
fragments, which have now been replaced in the tomb, and, with certain
fragments in Europe, form the sole remnant of the once imposing stela.
One of the most important scenes out of the famous reliefs of the
Expedition to Pount, at Der el Bahri, found its way into the hands of
the dealers, and was ultimately purchased by our museum in Cairo. The
beautiful and important reliefs which decorated the tomb of Horemheb at
Sakkara, hacked out of the walls by robbers, are now exhibited in six
different museums: London, Leyden, Vienna, Bologna, Alexandria, and
Cairo. Of the two hundred tombs of the nobles now to be seen at Thebes,
I cannot, at the moment, recall a single one which has not suffered in
this manner at some time previous to the organisation of the present
strict supervision.

The curators of western museums will argue that had they not purchased
these fragments they would have fallen into the hands of less desirable
owners. This is quite true, and, indeed, it forms the nearest approach
to justification that can be discovered. Nevertheless, it has to be
remembered that this purchasing of antiquities is the best stimulus to
the robber, who is well aware that a market is always to be found for
his stolen goods. It may seem difficult to censure the purchaser, for
certainly the fragments were "stray" when the bargain was struck, and it
is the business of the curator to collect stray antiquities. But why
were they stray? Why were they ever cut from the walls of the Egyptian
monuments? Assuredly because the robbers knew that museums would
purchase them. If there had been no demand there would have been no
supply.

To ask the curators to change their policy, and to purchase only those
objects which are legitimately on sale, would, of course, be as futile
as to ask the nations to disarm. The rivalry between museum and museum
would alone prevent a cessation of this indiscriminate traffic. I can
see only one way in which a more sane and moral attitude can be
introduced, and that is by the development of the habit of visiting
Egypt and of