12/27/2007

Don't Fake the Pharaohs

Egypt Planning Pyramid Copyright

Egypt aims to copyright a number of its ancient monuments. Should luxury resorts like Las Vegas beware the curse of the pharaohs?

Wondering if a built-to-scale Sphinx will perfect your outdoor lawn arrangement? Pondering a replica of Tutankhamen's final resting place out past your patio? Think again.

If Egyptian lawmakers pass a proposed law, Egypt will copyright its ancient monuments and try to collect royalties from people producing replicas of its cultural heritage -- from pyramids to the sphinx.

"The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies," Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian council's head, told the AFP. Hawass added that the law "does not forbid local or international artists from profiting from drawings and other reproductions of pharaonic and Egyptian monuments from all eras -- as long as they don't make exact copies."

Hawass did not specify what constitutes an "exact" or "100-percent" copy.

Hawass's comments followed a demand made in the daily Al-Wafd Sunday that the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, shaped like a pyramid, return part of its profits to the city it is named after. The city of Luxor is the southern Egyptian home to the Valley of the Kings, where many of the country's pharaohs were buried. "Thirty-five million tourists visit Las Vegas to see the reproduction of Luxor city while only 6 million visit the real Egyptian city of Luxor," the paper stated.

When asked about the issue, Hawass told the AFP that the luxury hotel was not a target of the law, as it is "not an exact copy of pharaonic monuments despite the facts it's in the shape of a pyramid."

As for the purpose behind the proposal, Hawass told the AFP that profits derived from the copyright would be dedicated to "restore, preserve and protect Egyptian monuments."

Hawass has been prominently featured in the news recently for spearheading a movement seeking to repatriate a number of ancient Egyptian artifacts, such as the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin and the Rosetta Stone in London.

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