This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Egypt is planning to sue over the sale at Christie’s auction house in London of a 3,000-year-old Tutankhamun sculpture that may have been looted from a Luxor temple – and has called on Interpol to intervene.

The 28.5cm brown quartzite head was part of a statue of the ancient god Amun with the facial features of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled Egypt between 1333BC and 1323BC. Similar statues were carved for the Temple of Karnak in the city of Thebes, now Luxor.

The sculpture was sold last week along with 32 other Egyptian artefacts despite Egypt’s fierce objections. Christie’s said it had carried out “extensive due diligence” to verify the provenance of the relic, which fetched £4.7m.

Egypt said on Tuesday it had asked Interpol to track the statue and other artefacts over alleged missing paperwork, and it criticised British authorities for not supporting its claim.

The Egyptian National Committee for Antiquities Repatriation, which met on Monday, expressed its “deep discontent” at the “unprofessional way in which the Egyptian artefacts were sold without the provision of the ownership documents and proof that the artefacts left Egypt in a legitimate manner”.

The committee, headed by Egypt’s minister of antiquities, Khaled El-Enany, also expressed “deep bewilderment” at the lack of support from the British government, and called on Britain to prohibit the artefacts’ export until the documents had been produced.

The statement appeared to suggest the issue could have an impact on cultural relations between Egypt and the UK, referring to “the ongoing cooperation between both countries in the field of archaeology, especially that there are 18 British archaeological missions working in Egypt”, AFP reported.

Egypt said it was instructing a British law firm to file a civil lawsuit over the sale and it would ask Interpol to issue a circular to “track down the illegal sale of Egyptian artefacts worldwide”.

A former antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, told AFP the head appeared to have been stolen from the Temple of Karnak. “The owners have given false information. They have not shown any legal papers to prove its ownership,” he said.

Enany told the BBC he would try to repatriate the artefact. “They left us with no other option but to go to court to restore our smuggled antiquities,” the minister said. “We will leave no stone unturned until we repatriate the Tutankhamun bust and the other 32 pieces sold by Christie’s. This is human heritage that should be on public display in its country of origin.”

The sale last Thursday sparked a protest outside Christie’s. Demonstrators held signs reading: “Stop trading in smuggled antiquities.”

Christie’s said the sale was legal and valid and the relic had been “well published and exhibited in the last 30 years”.

It said: “While ancient objects by their nature cannot be traced over millennia, Christie’s clearly carried out extensive due diligence verifying the provenance and legal title, establishing facts of recent ownership.

“Christie’s would not and does not sell any work where there isn’t clear title of ownership and a thorough understanding of modern provenance.”

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It has published a chronology of how the relic changed hands between European art dealers over the past 50 years. It said Germany’s Prince Wilhelm von Thurn und Taxis reputedly had it in his collection by the 1960s and it was acquired by an Austrian dealer in 1973-4. The listing says the statue was acquired as part of a lot from a Munich-based dealer, Heinz Herzer.

Last December Italy’s highest court ordered the Getty Museum in California to return an ancient Greek statue by the sculptor Lysippos to Italy after the museum paid Herzer almost $4m (£3.2m) for it in 1977.

A British government spokesperson said: “The relevant UK authorities have been and remain in regular communication with the Egyptian embassy in London.

“Christie’s is a private business and the government can only intervene in their operational matters if there is a clear basis in UK law to do so.”

The UK’s £30m Cultural Protection Fund includes a £1m project helping to create a database of Egyptian and Nubian artefacts currently in circulation on the international art market, and those held in private collections, to counteract looting and illegal trafficking.

• This article was amended on 12 July 2019. An earlier version stated that the Getty Museum was forced to return an ancient Greek statue to Italy. In fact, it was ordered to return the statue, but says it will continue to defend its right to it.