"Egypt restored six stolen Pharaonic statues that were unearthed in 1985 by an English-Dutch archaeological mission in Saqqara, 30 km south of Cairo," Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary General Zahi Hawwas said Monday 4/8/2008.

Among the statues was the ancient funerary "Ushabti", carved in green faience, which was stolen from Sekhemkhet storehouse in the vast ancient burial ground of Saqqara, Hawwas said.

The statue is 8.5 cm tall, 2.9 cm wide and 2 cm thick with hieroglyphic inscriptions at its front and back, he said.

A Dutch businessman purchased the statue, which represents a woman from the 19th Dynasty, from an auction in Brussels, but when he sought to check its historic value at the Leyden Museum, he was told that it had been stolen from Egypt.

The man reported the theft to the Dutch security authorities and to the Dutch courts who ruled that the relic had to be returned to Egypt. He regained the money he paid at the auction.