Exile over

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A 26TH-Dynasty ushabti (votive figurine) statuette has been returned to Egypt from America, Nevine El-Aref reports. The ushabti figure was originally bought in 1995 by an American woman from an antiquities gallery in New York. She offered it to her husband, Mario Marchese, who saw that it was better to allow it to return home.

Marchese directly contacted Zahi Hawass of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and asked him about the ideal procedures for returning the artefact. Hawass advised him to contact the Egyptian consular section in New York so it could be sent back to Cairo in a diplomatic bag.

To guarantee a safe journey for the ushabti, Marchese contacted the Semitic Museum at Harvard University and asked them to wrap the object suitably. The ushabti is now undergoing restoration and study so that it may eventually go on show at the Egyptian Museum.