An Egyptian doctor has been sentenced to six months in prison for smuggling hundreds of antiquities into the United States through New York’s JFK Airport, in what prosecutors described as the airport’s largest-ever seizure of smuggled artifacts. Ashraf Omar Eldarir was sentenced on 27 August by United States District Judge Rachel P. Kovner following a five-year investigation. Authorities said that more than 600 artifacts were brought into the country from Cairo on flights to JFK in 2019 and early 2020. The recovered antiquities included a polychrome relief, an ancient Roman limestone stele later sold at auction for US$1,000, and a Roman limestone head that sold for $1,300. Earlier this year, in February, Eldarir pleaded guilty to four counts of smuggling Egyptian artifacts. A filing by assistant federal defenders Kannan Sundaram and Jullian Harris-Calvin stated, “On each of the 2019 flights Mr. Eldarir brought a single artifact in his luggage; on the 2020 flight, he brought approximately 590 artifacts in three checked-in suitcases.” During the January 2020 flight, Eldarir declared to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers that he was carrying goods worth only $300. CBP officials later found 590 artifacts wra