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Man arrested for trying to sell pharaoh’s hair
GRENOBLE: A man who tried to sell a lock of hair he said was taken from the mummy of Egypt’s most famous pharaoh, Ramses II, has been arrested in France, officers said Wednesday.
The man, who was not identified, had posted an ad on an Internet website offering the snip of hair, samples of the mummy’s embalming resin and bits of the bandages for more than 2,000 euros (2,633 dollars).
He said he would also supply photos and certificates proving the authenticity of the lot, which he claimed came into his possession from his father, who was part of a team of French scientists tasked with analysing the royal mummy some 30 years ago.
Police arrested the man at his home in Saint Egreve, a village in the French Alps, and were detaining him for questioning. The Internet ad had created a storm among Egyptologists.
Christian Leblanc, a French archeologist heading the restoration of the Ramasseum, Ramses II’s funeral temple in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, told AFP that, if the ad was genuine, ‘it is a scandal’.
‘It is deplorable and unacceptable, this irresponsible person must be thrown in jail,’ he said. The lock, if proven authentic, would be considered part of Egypt’s rich heritage. Ramses II’s mummy, which is currently housed in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, was sent to Paris on September 12, 1976, for an examination of the cause of its deteriorating condition.
The deceased pharaoh, who reigned from 1279 to 1213 BC, was issued an Egyptian passport and was received at Paris’s Le Bourget airport with a ceremony, literally, fit for a king.
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Oh sorry, Djehuti, I did look through the topic threads of the last two days but didn't find a similar topic. That's why I posted it on here.
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