4 Shep-en-Isis and the thorny question of repatriation Cultural treasures give nations a sense of identity – which is why stolen cultural property is an emotive issue, not least with regard to the colonial empires of the past. Questions also surround cultural artefacts held in Switzerland. One controversy relates to the remains of an Egyptian mummy in St Gallen. DENISE LACHAT Amid the sumptuous baroque setting of the St Gallen Abbey Library, one of the world’s oldest and most significant historical libraries, lies the Egyptian mummy Shep-en-Isis. As far as we know, Shep-en-Isis was a priest’s daughter who died in the seventh century BC at the age of around 30. Her resting place, complete with glass coffin, is the “most beautiful mausoleum imaginable”, according to the Abbey Library. But is it Shep-en-Isis’s true resting place? This debate recently resurfaced when local theatre director Milo Rau won the Kulturpreis, St Gallen’s most prestigious cultural award, in November 2022. In his acceptance speech, Rau announced that he would donate his 30,000 Swiss franc prize money towards helping return the mummy to Egypt. He staged an artistic stunt, creating a mock-up of the mummy in her coffin, which he proceeded to wheel through the city. The Shep-en-Isis exhibition is a “constant moral irritation”, Rau lamented. He and other signatories also penned the St Gallen Declaration for Shep-en-Isis, calling the exhibition “thoughtless” if not “predatory and disrespectful” as well as being unacceptable for a city of culture like St Gallen. Originally buried in Luxor Shep-en-Isis is originally believed to have been buried in Egypt at the Theban Necropolis, across the Nile from Luxor. According to Rau and his fellow signatories, robbers snatched her from her grave. However, the Abbey Library says that this version of events cannot be proved. It argues in a statement on the St Gallen Declaration that it is inaccurate to claim Egypt was plundered in the 18th century. The Abbey Library says that instead French, British and, later, German scientists began to intensively study the culture of ancient Egypt after Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign of 1798–99 – in complete contrast to the Egyptians themselves, who gave their own heritage scant regard. The Abbey Library cites the example of Mohammed Ali, the viceroy of Egypt who in 1830 called one of the now world-famous pyramids of Giza a “pitiful heap”, saying that he wanted to use the “rubble” to build canals. The then French consulate in Alexandria stepped in to prevent the pyramid’s destruction, adds the statement. A question of dignity Shep-en-Isis ended up in St Gallen around 200 years ago. Philipp Roux, a German businessman, is said to have purchased her remains in Alexandria along with two attendant wooden sarcophaguses. He then sent them to a friend, the politician Karl Müller-Friedberg, who was the founding father of the canton of St Gallen. It is not entirely clear whether MüllerFriedberg received the mummy as a gift or whether he bought it himself. After arriving in St Gallen, Shep-en-Isis was unwrapped down to the shoulSwiss Review / March 2023 / No.2 Focus
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