"A stolen 4,500-year-old Egyptian artefact that was to be included in a New York auction in back home on Saturday", Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said Sunday 19/8/2007.

The duck-shaped alabaster vessel belonging to Amenemhat III, one of the most important kings of the 12th dynasty, was last year spotted on Christie's auction list by Interpol, which notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US. The piece had been smuggled into the US in 1982.

The vessel was excavated in 1979 by a German team of archaeologists at the pyramid of Amenemhat III, the sixth ruler of Egypt's 12th dynasty.

Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr.  Zahi Hawas said all legal steps were taken in coordination with the Egyptian Consulate in New York to secure the return of the exquisite antique.