Egypt Mad at the Sphinx Imitation

choi

Bree Feng, Chinese Developer’s Fake Sphinx Has Egypt Seething. New York Times, May 26, 2014 (blog).
sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/chinese-developers-fake-sphinx-has-egypt-seething/

Quote:

"Following complaints from Cairo and widespread discussion on Chinese social media, staff at the New Great Wall Cultural and Creative Group are now saying that the statue was never intended to be permanent and will be torn down soon.

"The fake sphinx is just part of a 'simple set for television and film,' a hassled-sounding employee said on Monday. The man, who declined to give his name, said that the structure would be demolished 'in the near future.' Photographs from the state-run news agency China News in early May show a film crew working inside the sphinx, which appears to have been hollowed out as a film set.

My comment:
(a) "The blowup over the sphinx is only the latest in a series of well-publicized cases of fakes in China."

blowup (n): "an outburst of temper"  (in this context: Egypt)
(b) There is no translation of the blog in cn.nytimes.com, yet.
(c) Li Jie, Cairo Says China’s Fake Sphinx Harms Egypt’s ‘Cultural Heritage.’ China Real Time, May 26, 2014
("The country [Egypt] said it planned to file a complaint to Unesco over an imitation Sphinx built in China earlier this year because it 'harms the cultural heritage of Egypt,' Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement. A Paris-based UNESCO spokeswoman said the organization had yet to receive a formal complaint")

I wonder what right Egypt might have. It is settled that architectural forms and fashion are not protected by copyright laws. Of course a logo on the fashion may not be copied, at the risk of copyright violations.