When a passion for collecting leads you astray.

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Sometimes it's hard to know when you are first captured by a theme or idea. That's the case with me about ancient Egypt. When I visited Egypt with my husband in 1988, I was inspired by the treasure and antiquity in the museum there.

When I received a brochure showing the Treasures of Tutankhamen, I decided to collect the Franklin Mint figures decorated with gold. It took about a year until I'd bought the final, twelfth item, set in a glass and brass display case. 

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Back twenty-five years ago when I was working, I attended a busy local auction every week, and managed to pick up some wonderful artifacts at very good prices too. You know how passion takes you to the extreme sometimes. Of course, thirty years on, we no longer need the clutter and its associated cleaning.

Today, my husband will pick up unsold items from an auction house in outer London. They didn't have online bidding, which I had been led to believe. I'm disappointed at the result, although I'll welcome my treasures back rather than sell for a ridiculously cheap price.

On searching the internet for more suitable outlet, I came across this item from a couple of months ago at Ahram Online 

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'Briton fined £500 by UK court for attempted sale of smuggled Egypt antiquities

Amer Sultan in London

Tuesday 15 Apr 2014

A UK court has fined a British citizen £500 after he admitted having attempted to sell a number of ill-gotten Egyptian antiquities.

Neil Kingsbury, who had previously worked on BBC documentary series about the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and other early archaeological adventures, was arrested after six items were identified in Christie’s London antiquities sale last year.

Kingsbury told Christie’s that he inherited the items from an uncle who had lived in Egypt for some years after serving in World War II.

However, one of the items – a relief fragment of a Nubian prisoner appearing to originate from the Amenhotep III Temple in Luxor’s Thebes – was spotted in Christie’s catalogue of items before the auction sale by Marcel Marée, a curator at the British Museum.

All six items — which are between 3,000 and 4,000 years old — were pulled from the sale a few days before it was due to start.

Christie’s contacted the Metropolitan Police’s Arts and Antiques Unit (MPAA) which arrested Kingsbury and interviewed him before referring him to court.

During a nine-month trial, Kingsbury revealed he had bought the items from a man called Mohamed who owned a series of shops, including one in a five-star hotel complex in Luxor, and brought them to Britain in a suitcase.

Due to his cooperation and confession, Kingsbury was told he would not be sentenced to prison. Beside the £500 fine, he was also ordered to pay £50 as a court fee.

“This case shows how our procedures, our due diligence and the transparent and public nature of our sales combine to make our salesroom highly unattractive to those engaged in the illicit trade,” Christie’s spokesman told Ahram Online, adding that he hoped the incident will send a strong message to those engaged in illicit trade.'

www.voanews.com

In 2011, looters stole several artifacts from Cairo's Egyptian Museum during the anti-government protests that erupted in nearby Tahrir Square.

I've kept my English auction receipts and I guess my items are not worth exorbitant sums of money, but it makes you wonder about the morality of taking items from their original country, doesn't it?

Do you have a passion for collecting?

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