Egypt retrieved on Friday 19/12/2008 a statue of the head of King Amenhotep III that had been smuggled out of Egypt in the nineties. The hand-over ceremony took place in the Egyptian Embassy in London.

Egyptian Ambassador in Britain, Hatem Seif el-Nasr, deemed the retrieval of smuggled Egyptian antiquities a "national mission." He pointed out to strenuous efforts made by the Supreme Council of Antiquities under Secretary General Zahi Hawwas, to recover stolen antiquities.