An Egyptian coffin from 500 to 600 years before the birth of Christ will be sold in a Paris saleroom next week.
The double sarcophogi, an inner and outer box for a body, are listed in Christie’s Exceptional Sale on November 18, when they are expected to sell for as much as €300,000, around £265,000 or $350,000.
They are dated to the late period of the 26th Dynasty, meaning they were made between 664 and 525 BC.
The person inside the coffins was called lahtesnakht (which means ‘the moon is her strength’).
A Book of the Dead from this burial is now in the collection of the University of Cologne, adding further distinction to the very well preserved and beautifully decorated funerary ensemble.
The outer sarcophagus is spectacular and in incredible condition for an item that is at least 2600 years old. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
The outer sarcophagus is rectangular and is decorated with texts and images to describe the sun’s journey through the cosmos. The inner coffin, in which the mumy (now lost) rested, represents the tomb of Osiris, the god of the afterlife.
Iahtesnakht was undoubtedly a wealthy and important woman, though her position in Egyptian society is not recorded.
Christie’s say the pieces are from Heracleopolis Magna, an ancient Egptian city south of Cairo on the western bank of the Nile. The city, which was important and probably occupied for nearly 30 centuries, had a cult of Osiris, and its burial centres include many tombs of singers.
These coffins were bought by a private collector in the 1970s from the Belgian art market say Christie’s.
Egyptian antiquities can be very valuable on the private market. A sarcophogus sold for $3.2 million at Christies in 2019.
The ownership and legality and morality of sales of Ancient cultural items, particularly sacred ones, can be controversial. Anything ancient found in Egypt now is considered the property of the Egyptian state. A 1970 UNESCO treaty also gives protections to some cultural objects and supports the return of items that are shown to be stolen.
But, it is likely that millions of items were taken out of Egypt (and other countries) under laws written by colonial authorities to rest in museum and private collections in colonising countries.
