The US Government has appealed the decision to dismiss its effort to seek the forfeiture of the Ka Nefer Nefer Mask. It has been reported such decisions are made by the same US State Department and Customs and Border Protection cultural bureacracy responsible for imposing import restrictions. If so, one wonders if the appeal is at least in part an effort to throw a lifeline to Zahi Hawass, who after all has sought to bolster his position with the Egyptian Government through being "indispensible" for the protection of Egyptian cultural property.