U.S. authorities have returned a gilded coffin of Nedjemankh to Egypt after it spent two years at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The 2,100-year-old smuggled coffin was displayed as a centerpiece in an ancient Egyptian exhibition that lasts nearly six months.

The Metropolitan Museun had acquired the coffin through an artifacts dealer presenting fabricated documents at a cost of about US$4 million during the aftermath of the January 25th Egyptian revolution, according to BBC.

The U.S. authorities revealed that the false documents presented by the dealer included a fraudulent Egyptian export license. They said the artefact had been trafficked from its original burial tomb in Egypt’s Minya.

Egypt hailed the return of the gilded coffin and called for action to be taken against its traffickers.

"This is not only for Egyptians; this is for our common human heritage," Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Hassan Shoukry said.

He added that the coffin would go on display in 2020.

An official statement from the Egyptian minister said the coffin’s return took place in light of the 2016 joint agreement between the two countries (Egypt and the US) regarding the protection of Egyptian antiquities.