Until the middle of the nineteenth century, there was no legislation concerning the antiquities trade in Egypt. There were thousands of artifacts from jewelry, statues, engravings and even entire monuments that had been removed from their original environment to join private collections or collections of museums around the world. The Western passion for Egyptian antiquities began with the advent of the French Campaign (1798-1801) and the publication of successive volumes of the book "Describing Egypt" which created global interest in Egypt and its ancient monuments
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