A 4,700 year-old stolen Egyptian tablet was repatriated to Cairo today, after a US court ruled that the antiquity should be returned to Egypt.
A mural tablet dating back to 2,400 BC belonging to a high state official of the Old Kingdom was stolen in 1992 from Sakkara, southwest of Cairo, and is one of many purloined Egyptian treasures the country says it wants to recover.
"I have to say that we are very happy that the court in New York made a decision that this piece should go back to Egypt. It is very important to show that this is the beginning of returning our stolen artefacts to Egypt," Dr Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Antiquities Council said.
Last month a prominent New York art dealer was sentenced in the US to 33 months in prison for conspiring to receive stolen Egyptian antiquities including the mummified head of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who died in 1375 BC.
Frederick Schultz, president of Frederick Schultz Ancient Art and the former president of the National Association of Dealers in Ancient, Oriental and Primitive Art, was also fined $50,000.
Dr Hawass, who had accompanied the tablet on its trip back to Egypt, said the council was in the process of reclaiming other looted artefacts from the United States, England, Switzerland.
The stolen head of Amenhotep III would be returned within three weeks, he added.
The engraving on the tablet depicts a man, his wife who is smelling a lotus flower and their son who is carrying a couple of geese in his hand.