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# Egypt's Antiquities Not So Safe?
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/zahi-hawass-to-resign/
- Published: 2011-03-02T00:22:18.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:41:06.000Z
- Description: The New York Times is reporting on its ArtsBeat blog that the Egyptian Antiquities head, Zahi Hawass, may resign after a month of defending his work as the head of antiquities and, in more troubling news, he has revealed some facts that suggest Egypt's ancient heritage isn't exactly safe … [NYTimes'
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: News, #image-position-hidden, Archaeology, Egypt, Egyptian revolution, Zahi Hawass, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/03/hawass1.gif)

Look at the Ego on Him, Zahi Hawass and the Sphinx at Giza (via archaeology.org)

The *New York Times* is reporting [on its ArtsBeat blog](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/egypt-antiquities-chief-says-he-may-quit/?ref=hyperallergic.com) that the Egyptian Antiquities head, Zahi Hawass, may resign after a month of defending his work as the head of antiquities and, in more troubling news, he has revealed some facts that suggest Egypt’s ancient heritage isn’t exactly safe:

> In a telephone interview he said that thieves on Monday broke into two warehouses near the pyramids of Giza that held artifacts excavated in the early 20th century … “During the revolution nothing happened, but after the revolution many things are happening everywhere … People building houses, taking archaeological land, excavating at night — it’s like a nightmare, and I don’t know what I can do.”  
>  
> … On Tuesday Mr. Hawass said that people had also been caught excavating at night at Abydos, an important archaeological site north of Luxor.

We have [trouble believing anything Hawass says](http://twitter.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#!/hyperallergic/status/33561470931312640) as when he isn’t [bloviating about things he doesn’t understand](https://hyperallergic.com/egypt-central-park-stele/) (always with an Egyptian nationalist’s bias) and stating things like [they are facts](https://hyperallergic.com/antiquities-zahi-hawass/), until … well … people [discover they aren’t](http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/02/the-news-about-egypts-antiquities.html?ref=ra).

Maybe Motherboard has [it right](http://motherboard.tv/2011/3/1/new-egyptian-antiquities-czar-same-as-the-old-antiquities-czar?ref=hyperallergic.com) when they ask:

> … is Zahi Hawass the Qadaffi of near-Eastern antiquity?

Good question.