Egypt backs China in battle over artifacts

Support comes as Tutankhamun exhibition opens in London to great excitement

Egypt's minister for antiquities has told China Daily his country supports China's efforts to repatriate its historical artifacts from around the world as countries with a rich cultural heritage have a duty to future generations to safeguard these items for their own people and humanity as a whole.

Khaled El-Enany was speaking at the launch of the exhibition Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh that will run at London's Saatchi Gallery until May. The exhibition coincides with the 97th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb on Nov 4, 1922, by an expedition led by British historian Howard Carter.

Its discovery made the boy pharaoh a household name around the world, a status that Tutankhamun still enjoys nearly 100 years later, and generated a global market for Egyptian artifacts, putting the country in a similar position to China, seeing much of its heritage sold to the highest bidder. An economically resurgent China has recently become extremely active in putting right this historical wrong, and El-Enany said Egypt fully sympathized.