**The Louvre museum in Paris will return five ancient fresco fragments to Egypt, the French culture ministry has said.**The announcement comes two days after the head of antiquities in Cairo said he would cease all co-operation with the museum until they were sent back.
The Egyptians say the Louvre bought the Pharaonic steles in 2000 even though it knew they had been stolen in the 1980s.
They are believed to be from a 3,200-year-old tomb of the noble, Tetaki, in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor.
The decision to return the steles came after the French Culture Minister, Frederic Mitterrand, convened a meeting of a national committee empowered to rule on restitution.
“Restitution is now a matter of weeks away,” the culture ministry told the AFP news agency on Friday, adding that the committee had voted unanimously to return the artefacts.
The ministry also said the steles had been “acquired in good faith” by the Louvre.
Ancient Egyptian artworks and relics are displayed in many of the world’s top museums, but in recent years the Egyptian government has stepped up pressure to repatriate some of them.