The Collector has published a feature naming seven ancient Egyptian objects held in museums abroad that, in its view, should now be returned to Egypt following the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum. The piece frames the argument around the museum's official opening in November 2025, which it describes as a state-of-the-art, billion-dollar institution near Giza.
The article revisits a long-standing debate over the ownership and display of Egyptian antiquities held in collections outside Egypt. For decades, The Collector notes, major museums have defended keeping such objects by arguing that more people would see them in their current homes, and by questioning where in Egypt they could suitably be housed. The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, the piece argues, weakens that second line of defence by providing a modern, large-scale venue purpose-built for Egyptian heritage.
Debates over the repatriation of cultural heritage have grown louder in recent years, and Egypt has been among the countries pressing for the return of items removed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some of the most famous Egyptian artefacts in the world sit in institutions in Europe and beyond, and their status has been contested for generations. The Collector's list gathers seven such objects into a single argument, using the new museum as the occasion to make its case.
The Grand Egyptian Museum has itself been the subject of considerable coverage since it began welcoming visitors. Its galleries have been designed to bring together large parts of Egypt's archaeological record under one roof, including material associated with Tutankhamun. Supporters of repatriation see the scale and ambition of the project as directly relevant to questions about where dispersed collections should ultimately reside.
Articles of this kind are opinion-led rather than reports of new archaeological discoveries, and readers will find that the case for or against returning any given object tends to rest on its individual history: how and when it left Egypt, the terms under which it was acquired, and the legal frameworks in place at the time. Those details differ from object to object, and the arguments around each are rarely straightforward.
For readers who want to engage with these objects on their own terms, learning even a little of the hieroglyphic script can transform a museum visit, turning a row of carved signs into names and phrases you can begin to follow. The Hierolyte app is built for exactly that kind of first-hand reading. The full feature, including the seven objects The Collector has chosen, is available on its website.