London and its famed West End entertainment district are "coming alive again" after months of closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, veteran theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh said as he reopened a staged concert of hit musical Les Miserables.
Mackintosh, known for producing shows such as Phantom of the Opera and Cats, welcomed audiences back to his Sondheim Theatre three days after indoor entertainment venues reopened their doors in the latest lockdown easing in England.
"Several of our shows already have got back the advance that they had before the pandemic hit. So I am very encouraged in the public interest, which I think will only get stronger," Mackintosh said.
"This is the first week London's reopened with the restaurants. You can see, you can feel it in the street, London is coming alive again. And it's pleasantly busy and buzzy now."
About a third of London theatres have reopened this week but with strict social distancing measures, meaning they have to operate at 50 per cent capacity. Big musical productions are only planning to reopen in the summer after the last phase in the roadmap out of lockdown, scheduled for June 21.
Mackintosh, 74, owns eight West End theatres and is behind the London productions of shows such as Hamilton and Mary Poppins. Les Miserables - The Staged Concert is smaller in size.
"When the entire rig of the theatre lifted up in the air, there were gasps and cheers as well," he said.
"It really is a proper show because there are over 50 people on stage there. And I don't think in these Covid times anyone was expecting that."
Mackintosh said he hoped the rest of his shows would start opening towards the end of July and August.
"Not everyone has been able to come back to our business ... but the ones that have come back, they've come back with such passion and they are so thrilled," Mackintosh said.
"There's been tremendous camaraderie between all the producers because everybody understands that their colleagues are having problems. So I think there's been more co-operation, collaboration between producers and theatre owners, both sides of the Atlantic and around the world than I have ever known."
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
