Dr. St. John Simpson standing next to a 3rd century Sasanian rock relief that was intercepted by Border Police Officers at Stanstead Airport after Smugglers have made a failed attempt to sell a previously-unknown museum-quality sculpture in Britain after an angle grinder gouged it from an ancient rockface in Iran. Dr St John Simpson is a senior curator and archaeologist in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, London, and has excavated widely in the Middle East and Central Asia. His previous publications include Afghanistan: A Cultural History (2012) and Looted, Recovered, Returned: Antiquities from Afghanistan (2014).. St. John Simpson standing next to a 3rd century Sasanian rock relief that was intercepted by Border Police Officers at Stanstead Airport after Smugglers have made a failed attempt to sell a previously-unknown museum-quality sculpture in Britain after an angle grinder gouged it from an ancient rockface in Iran. Dr St John Simpson is a senior curator and archaeologist in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, London, and has excavated widely in the Middle East and Central Asia. His previous publications include Afghanistan: A Cultural History (2012) and Looted, Recovered, Returned: Antiquities from Afghanistan (2014).