Legend has it that the royal tombs of ancient Egypt were sealed with monstrous curses against all those who trespassed into the domain of the afterlife....

Howard Carter, the lead archaeologist who opened the tomb in 1923, wrote that "all sane people should dismiss such inventions with contempt".

But a German man has decided the curse of the mummies is definitely not a myth - and has therefore returned a plundered ancient Egyptian carving which he says has fatally cursed his family.

The relic was stolen three years ago from the Valley of Kings, near Luxor, home to the tombs of dozens of Pharaohs and Egyptian nobles who were buried there some three millennia ago.