A 2,500 year old Persian sculpture, dating from the Achaemenid era, was sold for over $1 million at a London auction Thursday after its real ownership was disputed in litigation. The auction house said that the Achaemenid relief, which dates from the first half of the 5th Century BC and depicts the profile head of a Persian guardsman in profile, was purchased for $1,188,284. It comes after the ownership of the Achaemenid relief was contested by Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization at London's High Court in January that originally delayed the auction.

A French collection owner kept the piece for 30 years in her private collection in France after it was unearthed uring archaeological excavations in 1933. To prove Iran's ownership, a documentary film and pictures of the excavations carried out in Persepolis and a complete report of the archaeology team working there were submitted to the court. But it was argued that as the relief had already been sold later in a New York action in 1974 to the present owner, the resale was not forbidden.

Source: Payvand