(Newser)
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to return 19 items taken from the tomb of King Tut, the New York Post reports. The boy king's homeland of Egypt will get back a miniature bronze dog, a bracelet in the likeness of the sphinx, and various other figurines and bits of jewelry. All were sent to New York in 1948.
The items had been on display at the Met's expedition house in Egypt, then sent to New York when that house closed. But "because of precise legislation relating to that excavation, these objects were never meant to have left Egypt, and therefore should rightfully belong to the government of Egypt,” says the Met director. The items will go to the Grand Egyptian Museum, set to open near the Giza pyramids in 2012.
