The Egyptian government official charged with protecting his country’s ancient monuments is threatening to take back an iconic obelisk in Central Park unless New York City takes steps to restore it.
The stone obelisk “has been severely weathered over the past century” with no effort made to conserve it, Zahi Hawass, secretary general for Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, wrote in a letter this week to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
- Image by Ludita via Flickr
The obelisk, which commemorates King Thutmose III, has stood behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1881. At 71 feet tall, it is known as “Cleopatra’s Needle” and is one of a pair. The other is in London. The obelisk dates back roughly 3,500 years and was given to the United States in the 19th century by an official in Egypt.
I have a duty to protect all Egyptian monuments whether they are inside or outside of Egypt,” Hawass wrote in the letter, “The hieroglyphics have completely worn away in places.”
Jonathan Kuhn, director of art and antiquities for New York’s Parks Department, told local news website DNAinfo that there was no evidence of “any significant ongoing erosion.” A Metropolitan Museum study in the 1980s found the granite was “largely inert” and that damage to the inscriptions and the base of the monument occurred in the distant past, Kuhn said.
via Egypt threatens to take back New York obelisk | Reuters
