From 1914 to 1936 he served as director general of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt.[1] He was appointed in 1914 to succeed Gaston Maspero but could not take up the position until after World War I. He immediately announced that excavation concessions would be limited to representatives of public institutions and societies. He then reinterpreted the law covering division of finds so that the Egyptian National Museum could take all unique finds and give the excavator all the rest.[3]