The Embassy of Libya, the British Museum and HMRC collaborate to return a rare, ancient funerary statue The statue has now been transferred to the Libyan Embassy. LONDON .-The British Museum and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have collaborated with the Embassy of Libya to assist in the return of a rare and striking 2nd century BC funerary statue from Cyrene. The statue was seized by Border Force officials at Heathrow airport several years ago having been illicitly imported into the United Kingdom to be offered for sale. In 2013 specialists at the British Museum were asked to assist in the identification of the statue. Museum staff instantly alerted HMRC to the importance of the statue noting that only a handful of these sculptural types are found in museum or private collections outside of Libya. The fresh surface of the statue was characteristic of marble that had only been out of the soil for a few years. This suggested that the statue had only recently been illegally excavated and exported from its country of origin, possibly following the upheavals of 2011. The Museum gave evidence for the prosecution in a court case in 2015, and the judge ruled that the sculpture was owned by the state of Libya. Since the court case the statue has been stored at the British Museum for safekeeping whilst HMRC have worked alongside the Libyan Embassy to return the statue to Libya.