Egypt’s jewels revealed

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 34

Egypt’s jewels revealed

NZPA-Reuter Alexandria After more than 30 years neglected in a bank vault, Egypt’s forgotton royal jewels have gone on display for the first time. A platinum crown encrusted with 2159 diamonds has lost none of its glitter. Nor has a baby rattle with diamond, emerald and ruby inlay. They are a small part of a collection that over the years has largely been auctioned off or mysteriously disappeared. When a group of young officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser toppled the high-living King Farouk in 1952, they ordered the sequestration of all property belonging to the Egyptian royal family. They then invited the London auctioneer, Sotheby’s, to view the collection. Whatever valuables were not sold off were bundled up and sent to a bank vault for safekeeping. The jewels of the Muhammed Ali dynasty — named after an Albanian officer in the Turkish Army who came to Egypt

in 1801 and later became viceroy of a semi-auto-nomous State under Ottoman rule. — remained in obscurity. In mid-1970, a Leban-ese-born woman whose Egyptian husband served in the royal household sued the State to recover her jewels which were seized along with those of the royal family.

The woman won the case but discovered when presented with her jewels that they were copies. An investigation was launched. Expert committees were set up and discovered more fakes and tampering with the royal jewels. As no inventory was made at the time of sequestration, no-one knows what is missing or what became of the priceless gems. After the investigation, the collection was moved to the central bank. Once more they were forgotten until President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree this year proclaiming the jewels a part of Egypt’s national heritage and set aside two state palaces to house them. The Royal Jewellery Museum at Alexandria’s Fatma el-Zahra palace was inaugurated on July 26, the date set to commemorate the formal end of the monarchy when King Farouk sailed to exile from Alexandria 34 years earlier. Ibrahim Ndwawy, head of the Egyptian Museums’ Department, says the displayed jewels are from 415 batches of 2000 which have been declared genuine and not the subject of court cases. Another 2000 batches are still under investigation. The remaining pieces will be distributed to museums in the coming months. The collection also includes a gold chess set inlaid with 425 Flemish diamonds once belonging to the late King Farouk. The museum has been divided into rooms housing separate collections of the viceroys, sultans and kings who ruled Egypt as well as their princesses and queens. Their portraits line the walls of Fatma el-Zahra Palace, a pink building styled along eighteenthcentury European lines. It, was home to a young princess, Fatma el-Zahra, and her prince, Haidar Fadel, and is a monument to their love. Stained-glass windows inside depict scenes of courting couples and provide yet another showpiece alongside the jewels.