From the Old Kingdom to the Late Period , the Greeks to the Ottomans, the mastaba , the pyramids and tombs have been incessant looting. And the ^nineteenth century , rediscovered during the exactions amplified, French, English, German rival to recover art treasures of ancient Egypt. Looting benefit mainly collections of major museums, the Louvre , the British Museum , the Museum of Turin or Berlin. These collections are harvested by consuls settled in Egypt at the end of Mamluk rule, Drovetti for France and Italy, Salt to England and France.

Louis XVIII refused to buy the first Drovetti collection, now exhibited in the museum of Turin , but Charles X becomes that of Salt, more than 4000 pieces, constituting the first fund collections of the Louvre.

Early looting

It seems that from the decay of the Old Kingdom, the looters taking advantage of the weakening of central power to violate the tombs and steal untold riches buried there. No pyramid in Egypt has remained untouched.

In the Middle Kingdom , the papyri tell of the trials made to thieves: cropped ears, nose cut, or even death.

In New Kingdom , the chronicles of Merikare return to the plundering of royal tombs, and it becomes increasingly difficult to monitor the cemeteries scattered around the hills of Thebes. The inability to stem the scourge conduit clergy of Amon to meet the royal mummies in a crevice of the cliff, safe hiding place known only to priests until the new raiders discovered in the late ^nineteenth century , but stopped in their company by Gaston Maspero.

Looting modern

In the nineteenth ^century , plundering benefit mainly training collections of major museums in Europe, foremost among them being those of the Louvre , the British Museum , museums of Berlin and Turin. The funds of these magnificent collections are harvested in a few decades by the consuls settled in Egypt in the early ^nineteenth century , at the end of Mamluk rule. Giovanni Anastasi for Sweden Bernardino Drovetti for France and Italy , Henry Salt for England, undertook a form of looting that empties Egypt's treasures. Louis XVIII refused to buy the first collection Drovetti, now on display in Turin, but Charles X becomes that of British Salt, which is the first substantive collections of the Louvre with over 4,000 rooms including a number was acquired from looters.

Bibliography

• Odile Weulersse, Looters of sarcophagi, Hachette, paperback ^No. 191, 1989 ( ISBN 2-010-14541-0 )