At least 98 old Islamic enameled glass lamps are suspected to have been stolen from Al-Rafa’i mosque in Cairo. One of the lamps turned up for sale at British auction house Christie’s and aroused the suspicion of Egyptian architect and conservation activist Omneya Abdel Barr. She noticed the lantern carried the seal of khedive Abbas Helmi Pasha, the last Ottoman viceroy of Egypt and Sudan, classifying the item as an antique and identifying it as belonging to the mosque. Upon further inspection it turned out at least 98 old Islamic glass lamps were missing from the interior of the mosque and had been replaced with cheap replicas. According to Gamal Mohammed Mostafa, general director of the Citadel Antiquities – which Al-Rifa’i mosque is part of – , the lamps were not missing, but simply “stored for safekeeping’ in ‘places that were not easily accessible”. The lamp – which dates back to the 1910’s – was expected to fetch in between 15,000 and 25,000 British pounds (LE 178,885 – 298,185). Al-Rifa’i mosque was built in the early 20th century and houses the burial sites for khedive Isma’il Pasha, King Farouk and…
98 Valuable Islamic Lamps Looted From Historic Mosque in Cairo
October 14, 2015
