Egypt threatens to take the obelisk in Central Park, this park stuck in New York from 22 January 1881. The head of the conservation of Egyptian antiquities, the hyperactive archaeologist Zahi Hawass, said Tuesday the New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, that does not care if the obelisk, badly damaged, try to snatch it away.


According to figures from Hawass, the governing body, the Supreme Council of Antiquities, has recovered some 30,000 antiquities out of the country. Cairo does not walk with trifles diplomatic and has come to prohibit scientific excavations to pressure foreign powers. Egypt calls for the Rosetta stone kept in the British Museum and the bust of Queen Nefertiti on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin.

The monument is a gift to the United States of Ottoman viceroy Ismail Pasha

"I have the task of protecting all Egyptian monuments, whether inside or outside Egypt. If the Central Park Conservancy [the private company that manages the park] and the City of New York can not adequately care for the obelisk, the steps necessary to give bring home this priceless artifact and saving it from ruin, "Hawass told Bloomberg spits in a letter, also addressed to the President of the Central Park Conservancy, an organization that has managed some $ 500 million investment in the park since 1980. The company spokeswoman, Kari Wethington, wash your hands. "The monuments in the park are owned by the City of New York," he explains.

Hawass, secretary general of the Council and with one foot in all the hell of Egyptology, is shown in the letter, "dismayed by the lack of care" to the obelisk, which has resulted in "serious harm" as the disappearance of some hieroglyphics . Bloomberg urges archaeologist, one of the 25 richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, to "find resources" to keep the monolith "with the respect they deserve."

The obelisk in Central Park is located on the brother of the Thames in London. Both, known today as Cleopatra's Needles, about 3,500 years ago adorned the entrance of the Solar Temple in Heliopolis, on the banks of the Nile Despite its present name, has nothing to do with the last queen of ancient Egypt, which born 1,500 years later. The two monoliths were carved by order of Pharaoh Thutmose III to celebrate his 30 year reign, in which the empire reached its greatest extent.

The head of conservation said that he arrived in New York damaged

In Roman times, many Egyptian obelisks in Rome ended, but this pair of monoliths around the year ended 12 in the southern Mediterranean in Alexandria, until both left the country to London and New York in the nineteenth century. The U.S. was a gift from the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Ismail Pasha after the construction of the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea since 1869.

In his blog, Hawass says, "incredibly valuable this monument has suffered a very serious erosion over the last century and has not made any effort to keep it." But New York rejected the accusations and said that the obelisk is not moving.

"Right now there is no evidence that they are causing significant erosion," explains the director of Public Art and Antiquities, Department of Parks of New York, Jonathan Kuhn. According directly responsible for their conservation, citing a study in late 1980 by the New York Metropolitan Museum, the obelisk was injured and the U.S..

"We do not support a transfer of the obelisk, authorities Zanjan

"The conclusion of that report was that the damage to the monument inscriptions identifiable moments occurred in the distant past, before the twentieth century," said Kuhn, who gives the debate settled: "We do not support a transfer of the obelisk." Interestingly, just over one month, the Metropolitan has reached an agreement with Egypt to return a fabulous twenty pieces of funerary equipment of Tutankhamun, despite initial reluctance.

SOurce Publico.es