Unpaid bills in land of the pharaohs

Britain nearly missed out on boy pharaoh's treasures

The famous exhibition in Britain of treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun was nearly scuppered by an unpaid bill.

Papers released to the Public Record Office under the 30-year rule show the Egyptians considered pulling out of the agreement to display the treasures at the British Museum because they were worried they could be seized as part of a multi-million pound court action.

A Swiss television company had launched a law suit for the non-payment of fees for thousands of hours of programmes supplied to Egyptian television.

The boy pharaoh's famous golden death mask

Although the claim had been lodged in a Swiss court, the Egyptians feared that their property could be subject to seizure anywhere around the world.

In letters from a British embassy official in 1971 about the affair, it emerged that since 1963 the Egyptians had only been making "token payments" for the 5,000 hours a year of programming the company was providing.

Cash disappeared

And to add insult to injury, they had been using a Kodak laboratory in Egypt to make copies of the programmes which they sold to other Arab countries.

Eventually an Egyptian government commission was set up to negotiate a settlement and found that the company was owed $19m.

The Swiss company Cinetel agreed to accept £1m in settlement if payment was made within 15 days.

One of the exhibits at the rescued 1972 exhibition

The cash was deposited into the Central Bank of Egypt but two weeks later had disappeared "presumably into the pockets of one or more of the ministers", wrote the British Embassy official.

So Cinetel went back to the courts.

Initially the Egyptians had wanted an Act of Parliament to ensure the Tutankhamun treasures - including the boy pharaoh's fabulous gold death mask - could not be seized in Britain.

But the idea was quickly dropped when it was pointed out that MPs would have to be told the full embarrassing facts behind the Cinetel affair.

Eventually the Egyptians agreed the exhibition in London could go ahead only after the UK Government agreed to indemnify them against any loss or damage to exhibits.