An Army helicopter pilot used a US military plane to smuggle dozens of ancient artifacts worth $10 million out of Egypt – only to sell them for some $20,000.
The tale of intrigue – and plain stupidity – came to light yesterday when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned 79 of the pots and urns, some more than 5,000 years old, to Egyptian officials at a Big Apple cere mony.
Edward George Johnson, 44, was an Army helicopter pilot stationed in Cairo from February to October 2002.
In the summer of that year, 370 artifacts were stolen from a storage area of the Ma’adi Museum in a Cairo suburb.
Court papers and an ICE statement said Johnson, using the diplomatic status he gained from his post, smuggled at least 100 of the artifacts out of Cairo on a military plane.
In 2003, he sold them to Sue McGovern, who owned Sands of Time Antiquities in Atlanta. He claimed his grandfather had acquired them working in Egypt in the 1930s and ’40s.
McGovern paid Johnson $20,200 for the historic objects, which Egyptian officials valued at $10 million. She sold them to art galleries in New York, London, Zurich and Montreal.
Egypt issued a worldwide alert about the theft. A French scholar saw pictures of the artifacts on the Internet and notified McGovern, who contacted ICE.
Agency investigators recovered 79 of the items and busted Johnson, who pleaded guilty in July to possession and selling of stolen antiquities. He was given 18 months probation and ordered to repay McGovern.