https://www.facebook.com/Sekhemka?fref=nf
The Northampton Save Sekhemka Action Group are anxiously awaiting the official announcement re the new owner of the Sekhemka statue and its future life - will it be exported to the new owner's country or will our plea for a longterm loan to a British museum bear fruit ?
So far our Action Group have worked closely with the eminent academics of the Petrie and UCL and our friends in the Egyptian Save Sekhemka Action Group trying to and succeeding in alerting the academic world and the Egyptian government and people to the tragedy of the Sekhemka sale and to the danger this sale presents to the contents of small and large museums nationally and internationally.
The Northampton Save Sekhemka Group thinks it is scandalous that successive UK Governments have shrunk national and local funds for culture be it for museums, the performing or the visual arts; Arts Council England has been denuded of funds and teeth and the Department of Culture, Media and Sports has no time to spare for the culture housed in our local museums. Do they think that museums and their collections are an unnecessary burden on public (TAX) finances and should be sold to raise money for various vanity projects that will enhance the reputation of local and national politicians ?
We think it is scandalous that our former Council Leader, now MP, Mr David Mackintosh has been rewarded for his unethical (and possibly illegal) sale of Sekhemka by being appointed to the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee for Local Authorities and Government; no doubt this appointment is intended as a signpost to other LAs encouraging them to behave like Northampton Borough Council.
We think it is scandalous that it takes foreign government involvement to persuade the UK Government that an unethical sale of a museum artefact may not be in the best interest of Great Britain either internationally or locally.
We think it is scandalous that the governing party of the UK closes ranks around its members whatever their behaviour even when this behaviour ruins the reputation and standing of Great Britain in the world.
If it had not been for the Northampton Save Sekhekma Action Group the Sekhekma statue would have disappeared without a trace to a foreign country and this disappearance would have encouraged all the international legal and illegal trade in antiquities. It is time the world wakes up to this trade, the grave damage it does and the efforts required of groups like ours to stop it. World, do stand up and be counted.
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