An important Khmer Durdoyhana statue is to be returned to Cambodia by Sotheby's following a complaint lodged by the Cambodian government.

The Durdoyhana, as the sandstone statue is known, is believed to have been taken from the temple of Prasat Chen in the north of the country, formerly known as Khmer.

The 10th century AD statue is worth around $3m and was due to be auctioned as part of Asia Week New York in 2011, but Sotheby's called off the sale after being contacted by UNESCO.

The Khmer statue is similar to this example, which represents Shiva

Two other Khmer statues, which had stood in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art since the 1990s, were returned to Cambodia in June.

The decision comes on the heels of the purchase of a number of Hopi artefacts by a charitable organisation in Paris, which returned them to the tribe, after a UNESCO plea to the auction house was ignored.