Iran’s chargé d’affaires to the United Kingdom (UK) says London has returned a third-century rock relief sculpture, which was gouged from a cliff in Iran and smuggled out of the country, to the Iranian embassy, Mehr reported.

In a post on his Twitter account, Mehdi Hosseini Matin said the Iranian embassy had taken delivery of the antiquity, dating to the period of the Sasanian Empire (AD 224-651), after it was put on display at the British Museum for three months.

The ancient treasure had been seized by the British border police in January 2016 at Stansted Airport near London.

It was heading for the black market in the UK when it was confiscated by UK border police officers upon growing suspicious of its haphazard packaging.

The artifact had broken into two due to its haphazard packaging, but it was repaired by conservators.

The unique relief, which is over one meter in height, depicts an imposing male figure. It was hacked out of living rock or rock that has been carved in situ.

Experts believe the artifact, reportedly worth more than £30 million, may have come from Iran’s southwestern Fars Province where a majority of Sasanian rock reliefs exist.