TEHRAN – A newly recovered Achaemenid-era (550-330 BC) bas-relief, which President Hassan Rouhani brought it back from the U.S. on September 27, has been delivered to Mashhad’s Khorasan Great Museum for a loan exhibit.

On October 28, the limestone relief which depicts a Persian guard, ended up 22 days of being displayed at the National Museum of Iran, where it received 11,333 visitors, 5,686 of whom were foreign nationals, ISNA reported.

The eight-inch-square object will also be put on show in a select of other cities across the country, according to the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

The bas-relief was returned to the country after 80 years. It was confiscated from the Park Avenue Armory in New York in 2017, while offered for sale at an art fair. In June, a U.S. judge ruled that the exquisite relic should be returned to Iran.

The relief was part of a long line of soldiers depicted on a balustrade at the central building on the UNESCO-registered Persepolis in southern Iran.

AFM/MQ/MG