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Case file s862 · Asian dynasties · 525 BCE
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525 BCE
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II: Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II. The photograph is a collective work ("Phot. Archives Photographiques"), the author remaini. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
c. 525 BC
Place
Sidon, Lebanon
Field
Royalty (Phoenician kings of Sidon) · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition
Phoenician funerary curse; Ottoman-era antiquities claims settled by a commission of European residents · Islamic law
Historical event
Persian rule over Phoenicia
Asian dynastiesBodies, bones and burialsCrowns and successionAncient worldMiddle EastLebanon

A boy king of Sidon cursed anyone who moved his coffin; in 1855 it was dug up, fought over and shipped to the Louvre

Eshmunazar II, king of Sidon, died at about 14 and had ruled with his mother, Amashtart, a priestess of Astarte. His black stone sarcophagus carries the longest Phoenician inscription then known. It records that the Persian "lord of kings" gave Sidon the corn lands of Dor and Jaffa. It warns that no one, royal or common, may open the coffin or move it, and that the gods will cut off the line and the offspring of anyone who does. Workmen of Alphonse Durighello, an agent of the French consulate, found it on 19 January 1855 in a cave tomb outside Sidon. The British vice-consul, Habib Abela, claimed it through deals with the workers and the landowner. A commission of European residents voted for Durighello on 24 April 1855. Aimé Péretié of the French consulate bought it and sold it to the Duc de Luynes for £400. Luynes gave it to the Louvre, and it reached Paris in 1856. Twenty oxen dragged it to the harbour. Inside, excavators found only a tooth, a piece of bone and a jaw; the burial had been robbed in antiquity. The sarcophagus is displayed in the Louvre.

What the law took from it

A curse protects nothing once the grave goods have a buyer and a court to rule on title.

Sources
  1. Google BooksScholarship
  2. worldhistory.orgPress
  3. college-de-france.frPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “A boy king of Sidon cursed anyone who moved his coffin; in 1855 it was dug up, fought over and shipped to the Louvre,” story s862, https://www.celebrity.estate/eshmunazar-sarcophagus-525-bc, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Asian dynastiesBodies, bones and burialsCrowns and successionAncient worldMiddle EastIslamic lawLebanon