CAIRO, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that Egypt has retrieved four ancient artifacts from the United States.

The Consulate General of Egypt in Houston, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, has successfully recovered the four rare ancient Egyptian artifacts dating back to different periods of ancient Egyptian civilization, according to the statement.

Local media reported that the restitution followed an initiative by the family of an American citizen from Texas who had kept the artifacts in his private collection. After his death, the family expressed their wish to return the pieces to Egypt.

The items had been received and transferred to the Egyptian Museum for examination, documentation and restoration, said the report.

A granite statue head depicting a ruler in a royal headdress from the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom is among the most notable recovered artifacts, the statement said.

In 2021, Egypt announced it had recovered nearly 30,000 smuggled artifacts from various countries since 2011.