Stolen Mummy's Left Hand Found and Returned to Egypt | National Geographic

We have a repatriation of ancient artifacts from Egypt. It includes a child sarcophagus about 2,600 years old, the top of another mummy sarcophagus, a burial shroud from inside a mummy sarcophagus, and finally, there is a mummified hand which was collected from a Sci-Fi studio in Los Angeles.

It's quite an unusual piece. If you look closely at the hand, you see the most detailed fingernails and wrinkles on the knuckles. I'm pretty sure as soon as they opened the box, they said, "Um, this is not a prop; this is a real mummified hand."

We have an abundance of human heritage in antiquities, and it's so abundant and has been prey to illicit trafficking and taking advantage of turbulent years of the Arab Spring. We've also seen the destruction of antiquities in Iraq and Syria, and this has all highlighted the importance that we all stand together to protect these invaluable pieces of our past.

I'm so honored. I'm so happy to host, to have a representation for our objects, our antiquities, to return our treasures back home to preserve their rich cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is a nonrenewable resource. Once these artifacts get ripped from the ground, then the history of that object and their context just disappears.

We are really proud to be part of helping these objects return home. They belong to Egypt, and for us to be able to return them and say these are more at home in Egypt than they are in somebody's private collections in the United States is a really important thing to note.