U.S. District Court Judge Henry Autrey has rejected the U.S. attorney's office suit against the Saint Louis Art Museum in the case of the ancient Egyptian artifact, the Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer.
The government filed the suit in order to return the mask to the Egyptian government, which claimed it had been stolen and then illegally removed from the country. With the court victory, the mask will remain at the Saint Louis Art Museum, although the U.S. attorney's office has 60 days to appeal the decision.
The U.S. government's case was based on civil forfeiture laws, and that
was where Judge Autrey found fault; in his March 31 ruling, he noted
that the government did not provide any proof that mask was "stolen,
smuggled, clandestinely imported or introduced," merely that the mask
had been shipped to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 1966, and that the
box it was supposed to be in was found empty in 1973. The Saint Louis
Art Museum acquired the piece from Phoenix Ancient Art in 1998.
So where was the mask in those intervening years?
That mystery was the source of Malcolm Gay's gripping feature story "Out of Egypt," which the Riverfront Times published in 2006. It's a long read, but well worth your time. When you've finished, perhaps you'll want to head over to the Saint Louis Art Museum, where the Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer remains on display.
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