A carved slab of alabaster that has survived centuries of wear, a civil war, and looting from a Yemeni museum, is being returned to Yemen after surfacing at a Sotheby’s auction.

A repatriation ceremony took place yesterday at the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security in Chelsea. The artifact was officially signed over to the Yemeni ambassador.

The piece, known as the South Arabian Alabaster Stele, depicts fertility goddess Dat-Hamim in bas-relief on a foot-high tablet. It is estimated to date from 300-400 A.D. The stele was stolen in July 1994 from the Aden Museum in Yemen’s port city of Aden, during the country’s civil war.

The recovery of the artifact followed a lengthy investigation. In May 2003, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents learned that the owners of Phoenix Ancient Art, antiquities dealers with galleries in Geneva and on the Upper East Side, had consigned the piece to Sotheby’s for auction with an estimated sale price of $20,000 to $30,000. Phoenix’s owners, brothers Ali and Hicham Aboutaam, had told the auction house that the piece came from a private English collection. In their research to prepare for the auction, Sotheby’s staff discovered that the stele was photographed and documented as a part of the Aden Museum’s collection. Immigration and Customs agents confirmed that the stele was stolen and issued a seizure warrant in September, 2003.

This wasn’t the first time the Aboutaams were caught smuggling antiquities. Last year, Ali Aboutaam was convicted on smuggling charges in abstentia by an Egyptian court and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Hicham Aboutaam was arrested last December on charges that he illegally imported an Iranian ceremonial drinking vessel, known as the “Silver Griffin,” which dates to 700 B.C. The vessel, which Mr. Aboutaam claimed to be Syrian, was sold for $1 million before it was discovered to have been pilfered from the Western Cave of Iran. He pleaded guilty in June.

At yesterday’s ceremony, American and Yemeni representatives agreed that the repatriation was the start of improving relations between the two countries. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, David Kelly, told Yemeni Ambassador Abdulla Al-Saidi, “We are looking forward to our relationship continuing and growing on so many fronts.” Mr. Kelly said that the relationship was strengthened in the wake of the October 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden harbor.

Mr. Al-Saidi expressed his “profound thanks to the United States government,” and signed the repatriation document. He spoke of the tumultuous times in Yemeni history during which the stele was stolen, and of Yemen’s commitment to joining with America in the war on terrorism.

The Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Michael Garcia, stressed that such breaches demonstrate border vulnerabilities that must be repaired.

While the stele was valued at tens of thousands of dollars, Mr. Garcia said that such an artifact is priceless. “It’s much more than that,” he said. “It’s a building block of history, a building block of a culture.”

After the fanfare of the unveiling and the pomp of the ceremony, officials unceremoniously packed the artifact in a plain brown box, to protect it on its trip to the Middle East.