Napoleon was all about the looting. European paintings, Egyptian antiquities, he was an equal-opportunity plunderer of cultural capital.

Bony's fleet rocked up to Egypt 1 July 1798 with over 160 academics - biologists, agronomists, ethnographers, engravers, botanists, philologists, classicists . . . you name it, he brought it. This army of the Enlightenment immediately set about 'discovering' the history, people, culture, politics, languages and 'mysteries' of Egypt.

They collected, catalogued, excavated, explored and translated their little hearts out for 3 years until the end of 1801, translating the Rosetta Stone in the process. Bonaparte left Egypt in August 1799 (presumably with his sweet calendar), leaving General Jacques-François Menou in charge of the French forces remaining in Egypt. Unfortunately, the British sent a battle-hardened Scots General, Sir Ralph Abercromby, to wrest Egypt from French control. The French were defeated, then besieged at Alexandria until they finally capitulated in September 1801.

All of those Egyptian antiquities? General Menou signed them over to the British after his defeat. They are, with very few exceptions, all in the British Museum.