Serious intention to raise funds to save Sekhemka Egyptian statue

Northampton Borough Council said the statue was sold to help fund a museum extension

A decision to grant an export licence for an ancient Egyptian statue sold by a council has been deferred.

The 4,000-year-old Sekhemka was sold at auction by Northampton Borough Council for £15.76m to fund an extension to the town's museum and art gallery.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey will retain the bar until 29 March 2016 after hearing of a serious bid to raise funds to save the statue for the UK.

A campaign group wants the statue to be loaned to a museum and go on display.

Northampton Borough Council collected £8m by selling Sekhemka, the statue of an Egyptian court official.

But the statue's sale to an overseas buyer led to an export bar being imposed by the UK government.

The identity of the new owner, who bought the statue at auction, has not been revealed

Gunilla Loe is leading a campaign to keep the statue in the UK at a museum where the public would have access but said her group would not bid or fundraise.

She said the UK Action Group met with a senior team at the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) on 1 September to see if there was a way forward.

The group wanted the DCMS to begin negotiations with the anonymous buyer to arrange a loan to a major British museum to stop the need for an export licence.

"We even suggested the planned museum complex in London's Olympic Park could be a suitable venue," she said.

The DCMS said: "The purpose of the export deferral period is to allow a buyer the opportunity to save the Sekhemka statue for the UK, and ensure there will be public access."

Spencer Compton, the second Marquis of Northampton, acquired Sekhemka during a trip to Egypt in 1850. It was presented to Northampton Museum by his son some years later.

The statue of Sekhemka, a royal chief, judge and administrator, shows him reading a scroll and would have been placed in his tomb