The signatories of this petition realise the fact that this prominent monument of Egyptian history left Egypt according to Article Sixteen of the Capitulation of Alexandria document (1801), a treaty negotiated and signed by the Ottoman, French, and English forces, which was not signed by a single Egyptian-based entity, which makes the legal positions of the Egyptian Antiquities when they came out of the country ambiguous.
Courtesy British Museum
Under the terms of this treaty, the Rosetta Stone along with sixteen other artefacts, were handed over from the French side to the combined army of the Anglo-Ottoman forces, after which the English army, without a documented Ottoman concession, seized these objects and sent them over to the British Museum; to be visited unethically and illegally ever since.
The repatriation of the Rosetta Stone to its original location in the city of Rashid will also change the tourist map and attention to this ancient historical city.
