The US paid the ancient priest's gold sarcophagus to Egypt

The thousand-year-old golden coffin will be moved from New York to its native Egypt after a long time of loss.

Gold-plated wooden coffin of the priest Nedjemankh.(Photo: Patch).

The mummified coffin of Nedjemankh in the 1st century BC will be transported to Egypt and displayed at the Great Egyptian Museum in Cairo, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Earlier, international antiques smugglers stole the sarcophagus and faked import and export papers. Currently, researchers are investigating multinational smuggling lines in the United States, France, Germany and Egypt.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York bought a 1.8-meter-long coffin made from gilded wood from an art broker in Paris in July 2017 for about $ 4 million. Before the Manhattan prosecutor's office contacted and provided evidence of smuggling in February 2019, meticulously decorated antiques displayed at Met attracted nearly half a million visitors.

According to authorities, the coffin that did not contain Nedjemankh's body was stolen in the city of Minya after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Smugglers transport the coffin through the United Arab Emirates to Germany for restoration. That led to France.

Nedjemankh is a high priest who specializes in the worship of Heryshef. The gold plated layer outside his coffin symbolizes the connection between Nedjemankh and the Egyptian gods and the souls of the dead. The engravings and writing in thick plaster to protect and guide Nedjemankh on the journey from the dead to life after reincarnation.

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