The UK government has placed a four-month export ban on a 4,500-year-old Egyptian statue of the scribe Sekhemka with his wife, which was sold at Christie’s in London for £15.8m last July. An unidentified overseas buyer bought the painted limestone figure, which was sold by Northampton Borough Council in a move condemned by the UK Museums Association. Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, said that the export ban would be extended to 12 months if a serious offer is made for the piece. “To our knowledge, no museum has expressed an interest in acquiring this work following its export stop,” says a spokeswoman for the Art Fund, a charity that helps to save works for the nation. The sculpture was donated to the people of Northampton by the fourth Marquis of Northampton in 1880.
