I hope that you had a good start into this new year. The SCP wishes you a happy and healthy 2024!

As in previous years, 2023 has also seen a focus on working with museums that have recently joined the SCP. Visiting their collections, selecting and photographing objects and studying documents in the archives made the year fly by.

We also had the opportunity to present the current status of our research at two conferences: At the 13th International Congress of Egyptologists ICE in Leiden (NL), Marc Loth gave an insight into the ongoing work with his lecture “Lives and afterlives of Ancient Egyptian coffins”; at the "Days of Egyptology" in Brenkhausen (D), I presented coffins with particularly complex provenances and acquisition histories in Swiss museums under the title "Discoveries behind Museum Walls". In my talk I also mentioned the coffin ensemble of Shepeniset, which is being studied by Renate Siegmann as part of our project. The mummy of the priest's daughter Shepeniset and her two coffins came to Switzerland in 1820 and have been in the Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen (Abbey Library of St. Gall) ever since. In a controversial and media-effective campaign, Swiss theatre director Milo Rau demanded the return of the mummy at the end of 2022, causing quite a stir among museums. Irritated by Rau's provocative accusations and the silence of the Swiss Museums Association (VMS), several museums contacted the SCP. This prompted us to issue a statement, which was published in Newsletter #2 of the “Verband der Ägyptologie VÄ” (“Association of Egyptology”) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the VÄ.

The debate surrounding Schepenese has once again demonstrated the importance of regular dialogue between museums, particularly on sensitive topics. This encourages us to further expand the network we have created with the museums in 2024.