The statue was pilfered from the Ramses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in Southern Egypt over three decades ago.

Egypt's antiquities ministry announced on Sunday that a 3,400-year-old statue portraying the head of King Ramses II has been welcomed back to Egypt after being stolen and smuggled out of the country over thirty years ago.

The statue is currently housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, though it is not yet on display. According to the ministry's statement, efforts will be made to restore the artifact.

The statue was originally taken from the Ramses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in Southern Egypt, with the exact date of theft unknown. Shaaban Abdel Gawad, the head of Egypt's antiquities repatriation department, estimates that the piece was likely stolen in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Egyptian authorities first identified the artifact when it appeared for sale at an exhibition in London in 2013. Subsequently, it traversed through several other countries before eventually reaching Switzerland, as reported by the antiquities ministry.

"This head is part of a group of statues depicting King Ramses II seated alongside a number of Egyptian deities," explained Abdel Gawad.

Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, remains one of ancient Egypt's most formidable pharaohs. He reigned as the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt from 1279 to 1213 B.C.

Collaborating with Swiss authorities, Egypt worked to establish its rightful ownership. Switzerland then surrendered the statue to the Egyptian embassy in Bern last year. However, it was only recently that Egypt successfully repatriated the artifact.