The Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer was discovered in Egypt in 1952 by Mohamed Yakaria, an Egyptian archaeologist working for the Egyptian government. The Mask was registered as governmental property and kept in a storage facility until 1959 in Saqqara, Egypt. In 1959, the Mask was sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and was meant to be sent to Tokyo, Japan for an exhibit; however, the Mask was not sent to Japan and stayed at the Egyptian Museum until 1962, when it was returned to Saqqara. In 1966, the Mask and other artifacts were sent to Cairo in a box for restoration. The box was checked for inventory in 1973 by the Egyptian Museum and it was discovered that the Mask was missing. The government’s register of antiquities did not contain any indication of a transfer of the Mask to a private party between 1966 and 1973. In 2006, the Egyptian government learned that the Mask was purchased in 1998 by the Art Museum Subdistrict of the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District of the City and County of St. Louis. The Museum refused repeated requests from the Egyptian government to return the Mask. In June 2014, the U.S. government's appeal was denied, which allowed the Mask to remain at the Museum.
EgyptUnited States of AmericaOn June 12, 2014 the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the district court's decision and thus denied the U.S. government's appeal concerning its civil forfeiture complaint, allowing the mask to remain at the Museum. The Court granted the Museum's motion to supplement the record on appeal.
The United States Government filed the complaint on behalf of the Egyptian government.
US v. Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, 752 F. 3d 737 - Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit 2014
For more information about this Case, please check the Case Note available on the ArThemis Database developed by the University of Geneva.
Circuit Judge Murphy concurred with the court's opinion; however, she wrote a separate opinion to express her "concern about what the record in this case reveals about the illicit trade in antiquities." Judge Murphy concluded that "while this cases turns on a procedural issue, courts are bound to recognize that the illicit sale of antiquities poses a continuing threat to the preservation of the world's international cultural heritage. Museums and other participants in the international market for art and antiquities need to exercise caution and care in their dealings in order to protect this heritage and to understand that the United States might ultimately be able to recover such purchases."