Egypt will receive on Thursday 29/10/2009 the lost part of the sarcophagus of King Amnemhat I, the founder of the 12th Dynasty (1991-1962 BC) from the New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Art, said Culture Minister Farouq Hosni in statements on Tuesday 27/10/2009.

"This piece will return home after the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased it from a man in New York, thus completing the lost part of the sarcophagus of King Amnemhat, currently inside the god Ptah temple in Karnak, in the Upper Egyptian archeological city of Luxor," said the Minister.

Zahi Hawas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the museum's purchase of this artifact is a precedent indicating the museum believes that all stolen antiquities must return to their original homeland.

"The important pink granite piece will return to Egypt 100 years after it went out of the country," said Hawas.