Los Angeles, the third-richest US city by number of millionaires, hosted the return of 48 ancient artefacts to Egypt after an FBI investigation found that the objects had been brought into the United States illegally.
The FBI handed the collection over to Egyptian authorities in Los Angeles on August 21, 2026, following an investigation by its Art Crime Team, according to the New York Post.
Los Angeles ranks third among the wealthiest US cities by number of millionaires, behind New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Its substantial private wealth and thriving art market make it a major centre for high-value cultural property, including antiquities.
More broadly, the return adds to a growing number of cases in which US authorities, museums and other institutions have repatriated cultural property to African countries.
The Egyptian collection includes carved figurines, amulets, funerary objects and burial furniture dating from the Pharaonic, Roman and Coptic periods. Some of the pieces are thousands of years old.
The investigation began after the collection’s most recent holder questioned how the objects had entered the United States. Authorities then found no evidence that the 48 artefacts had legally left Egypt.
The FBI has kept the investigation open despite the death of the suspected trafficker and is seeking possible accomplices as well as other objects that may have been acquired illegally.
“With the help of the US Department of State and antiquities experts, as well as the FBI legal attaché in Cairo, it was confirmed that all 48 objects originated in Egypt and should rightfully be returned to the Egyptian people,” FBI Assistant Director Patrick Grandy said.
“The suspected trafficker is now deceased,” Grandy said, noting that the investigation “remains open as authorities work to identify possible accomplices and locate other objects that may have been obtained illegally.”
Egypt’s Consul General in Los Angeles, Hossam Eldeen Aly, described the recovered pieces as an “integral part of the history and cultural heritage of Egypt and its people.”
