Swiss officials have restituted a 3,400-year-old fragmentary sculpture of Pharaoh Ramesses II (c. 1303 BC-1213 BC) to the Egyptian government. Stolen over three decades ago, the stone fragment was returned at a ceremony in the Egyptian embassy in Bern.

Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, ascended to the throne at age 25 and became one of the most powerful leaders of the New Kingdom of Egypt. He is thought to be the longest reigning pharaoh in Egyptian history, living until at least the age of 90.

The fragment shows a part of Ramesses II’s face and elaborate headdress. It was originally part of a statuary group in which the pharaoh sat alongside various ancient Egyptian gods at Ramesses II’s temple complex in the sacred city of Abydos.

In the late 1980s or early 1990s, the fragment was plundered from the temple. Officials seized the piece during the course of criminal proceedings as it entered Geneva, after it had stopped in several other countries beforehand. The country of Egypt endured intense looting and destruction of its archaeological sites for over a century, resulting in the major loss of cultural heritage like this fragment.

On 3 June, the director of the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), Carine Bachmann, handed over the “important archaeological asset” to the Egyptian embassy. Representatives from Switzerland and Egypt underlined their dedication to combating the illicit trade in cultural property. A joint statement said the restitution “underlines Switzerland’s and Egypt’s shared commitment in the fight against the illegal trafficking of heritage, which was strengthened by a bilateral agreement on the import and return of cultural heritage in 2011.”

This agreement followed the 2011 political uprising in Egypt, which saw an escalation in the theft of antiquities from the country’s museums, mosques, storage facilities, and illegal excavations. Since then, officials report around 30,000 Egyptian artefacts have been recovered from around the world. Egypt and Switzerland are also both parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention that prohibits and prevents the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property.