BRUSSELS: Feathers are flying after Chinese authorities seized hundreds of Belgian pigeons, including Bolt, the world’s most expensive racer, sold for 310,000 euros ($419,800) earlier this year.
Bolt was released last Thursday, together with 400 of his feathered friends, but a further 1,200 racing pigeons are still captive because of a dispute over import duties.
The Belgian ambassador to Beijing is in talks to try to free the rest, the Belgian foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Chinese authorities have said the birds were declared at only nominal values, meaning China would be losing out massively on tax and import duties.
Import duties are 10 percent of the value and, on top of that, a tax of 13 percent is levied, meaning China was due around 75,000 euros for Bolt alone.
Bolt the pigeon, named after the Olympic gold-winning Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, is worth so much in part because he was bred by the celebrated Belgian pigeon fancier Leo Heremans. In 2012, Bolt was the swiftest pigeon in Belgium, where racing rules are especially strict.
He was auctioned in May by the Belgian pigeon traders PIPA, short for Pigeon Paradise, and his release was secured after PIPA’s chief executive Nikolaas Gyselbrecht flew to Beijing to negotiate.
The Chinese authorities agreed PIPA was free of any blame and therefore released the 401 birds to their buyers after “a symbolic sum” was paid, Gyselbrecht told Reuters. Under Chinese law, he said the authorities could have exacted a huge payment equal to the birds’ total value of more than a million euros.
Beijing authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.
Gyselbrecht said the Belgian and Beijing authorities are trying to find one party to represent the many buyers of all the other birds to simplify negotiations.
So far the pigeons have spent two months in captivity, rather than the standard one month in quarantine.
Bolt is well and living in Beijing with his new owner, but he was fortunate.
“Of the 401 pigeons, four died. Luckily they were not the most expensive. The most expensive that died was worth 2,000 euros,” Gyselbrecht said.
Bolt’s racing days are done. As a homing pigeon, if he were allowed to fly, he would try to head back to Belgium, so he will only be used for breeding in China, where pigeon racing has surged in popularity.
“He will have a good retirement. He will have a very nice pigeon loft and he will see a lot of female pigeons,” Gyselbrecht said.
Ruffled feathers as China seizes pigeons
Ruffled feathers as China seizes pigeons
Egypt reveals restored colossal statues of pharaoh in Luxor
- Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt
LUXOR: Egypt on Sunday revealed the revamp of two colossal statues of a prominent pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor, the latest in the government’s archeological events that aim at drawing more tourists to the country.
The giant alabaster statues, known as the Colossi of Memnon, were reassembled in a renovation project that lasted about two decades. They represent Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,400 years ago.
“Today we are celebrating, actually, the finishing and the erecting of these two colossal statues,” Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said ahead of the ceremony.
Ismail said the colossi are of great significance to Luxor, a city known for its ancient temples and other antiquities. They’re also an attempt to “revive how this funerary temple of King Amenhotep III looked like a long time ago,” Ismail said.
Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt. The pharaoh, whose mummy is showcased at a Cairo museum, ruled between 1390–1353 BC, a peaceful period known for its prosperity and great construction, including his mortuary temple, where the Colossi of Memnon are located, and another temple, Soleb, in Nubia.
The colossi were toppled by a strong earthquake in about 1200 BC that also destroyed Amenhotep III’s funerary temple, said Ismail.
They were fragmented and partly quarried away, with their pedestals dispersed. Some of their blocks were reused in the Karnak temple, but archeologists brought them back to rebuild the colossi, according to the Antiquities Ministry.
In late 1990s, an Egyptian German mission, chaired by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, began working in the temple area, including the assembly and renovation of the colossi.
“This project has in mind … to save the last remains of a once-prestigious temple,” she said.
The statues show Amenhotep III seated with hands resting on his thighs, with their faces looking eastward toward the Nile and the rising sun. They wear the nemes headdress surmounted by the double crowns and the pleated royal kilt, which symbolizes the pharaoh’s rule.
Two other small statues on the pharaoh’s feet depict his wife, Tiye.
The colossi — 14.5 meters and 13.6 meters respectively — preside over the entrance of the king’s temple on the western bank of the Nile. The 35-hectare complex is believed to be the largest and richest temple in Egypt and is usually compared to the temple of Karnak, also in Luxor.
The colossi were hewn in Egyptian alabaster from the quarries of Hatnub, in Middle Egypt. They were fixed on large pedestals with inscriptions showing the name of the temple, as well as the quarry.
Unlike other monumental sculptures of ancient Egypt, the colossi were partly compiled with pieces sculpted separately, which were fixed into each statue’s main monolithic alabaster core, the ministry said.
Sunday’s unveiling in Luxor came just six weeks after the inauguration of the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, the centerpiece of the government’s bid to boost the country’s tourism industry. The mega project is located near the famed Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx.
In recent years, the sector has started to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia’s war on Ukraine — both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.
“This site is going to be a point of interest for years to come,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy, who attended the unveiling ceremony. “There are always new things happening in Luxor.”
A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8 percent of the country’s GDP, according to official figures.
Fathy, the minister, has said about 18 million tourists are expected to visit the country this year, with authorities hoping for 30 million visitors annually by 2032.
