Grasshopper relic for sale. But was it stolen from King Tut's tomb?

Some argue the artefact up for auction should be returned to Egypt

- Vanessa Thorpe

Delicate, perfectly formed but potentially cursed, a grasshopper thought to have been taken from Tutankhamun’s tomb is up for auction in London today despite an outcry from those who believe the sale should not go ahead.

The grasshopper, a few inches long and made from painted wood with ivory wings, is expected to sell for about half a million pounds. But the row surrounding its sale is shining a light on a gap in the regulations covering the trade in historic artefacts.

When, in 1923, the British archaeologist Howard Carter forced entry into the sarcophagus where the boy pharaoh’s body lay, he took many ornate objects. Some still remain unaccounted for.

This led to an international market in items that might have come from the tomb as Egyptomania took hold following the discovery. It also gave birth to the legend of a curse on the tomb, after several of those associated with the dig came to grief. Carter died 17 years later, at the age of 64.