An ancient wood sarcophagus that was included at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences was gone back to Egypt after US authorities determined it was looted years back, Egyptian authorities said Monday.The repatriation becomes part of the Egyptian government&& s efforts to stop the trafficking of its taken antiquities.

In 2021, authorities in Cairo was successful in getting 5,300 stolen artifacts returned to Egypt from across the world, AP reported.Mostafa Waziri, the leading authorities at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the sarcophagus goes back to the Late Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, a period that spanned the last of the Pharaonic rulers from 664 B.C.

till Alexander the Great&& s project in 332 B.C.The sarcophagus, nearly 3 meters tall with a vibrantly painted leading surface, may have come from an ancient priest named Ankhenmaat, though a few of the engravings on it have been eliminated, Waziri said.It was symbolically handed over at a ceremony Monday in Cairo by Daniel Rubinstein, the US chargé d&& affaires in Egypt.The handover came more than three months after the Manhattan District Attorney&& s Office figured out the sarcophagus was looted from Abu Sir Necropolis, north of Cairo.

It was smuggled through Germany into the United States in 2008, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L.

Bragg.&& This stunning casket was trafficked by an efficient network that has looted many antiquities from the area,& & Bragg said at the time.

&& We are happy that this item will be returned to Egypt, where it rightfully belongs.&& Bragg said the same network had actually smuggled a gilded casket out of Egypt that was featured at New York&& s Metropolitan Museum.

Met bought the piece from a Paris art dealership in 2017 for about $4 million.

It was gone back to Egypt in 2019.

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