I then began scrolling through pages and pages of South Arabian artefacts sold in the French capital by problematic individuals working the Paris market, during and after that date range listed on the "Wanted" poster.  With time, I was able to find a matching photo of the alabaster base, as Lot 297 in the 1 December 2011 auction catalogue of Pierre Bergé & Associés, where the auction house when to great lengths to transcribe the twenty-six lines of the artefact's Sabaean inscription,  a dedicatory text giving thanks and offering a bronze statue to the god Almaqah for the success of a punitive expedition against Abyssinian incursions during the reign of Lahay'athat Yarkham, King of Saba and Dhû Raydân, dated to around 230 to 240 CE. Unfortunately, the auction catalogue offered zero in the way of confirmable provenance information. 

Knowing the sale had long past, I was left me with little more than what I knew from the original "Wanted" poster, but at least I had the Paris sales point. At a semi-dead end, I filed the information on the object away among my many where-has-it-gone-now files, hoping that one day a subsequent consignment might surface before the piece could be sold again.

Then, while reading a newly released book published in January by French art journalist Vincent Noce, titled  L'or pillé des pharaons, I encountered an intriguing passage. Noce describes a network of indicted and unindicted individuals involved in circulating illicit antiquities through France and beyond. In the course of that discussion, he referenced a statue base that matched the object from the Antiquities Coalition’s poster.

Le plus notable est un socle de statue, catalogué comme provenant d’une « collection particulière », adjugé 44 000 € le 1er décembre 2011 à une galerie parisienne portant le nom de la déesse mère Cybèle. Comportant des inscriptions du royaume légendaire de Saba, il aurait été volé en 2005 dans les découvertes d’un chantier de fouilles mené par une mission américaine au temple d’Awam, dans la province yéménite de Marib. Apprenant que cet ouvrage était objet de l’enquête, le galeriste, Jean-Pierre Montesino, l’a remis à la police en remboursant son client. Il n’a jamais pu se faire dédommager par la maison Pierre Bergé, plus de dix ans étant passés depuis l’adjudication. Quand il voulut se retourner contre le vendeur, il s’aperçut que le nom figurant au bordereau de vente était en fait celui du transporteur.

Ce galeriste n’avait décidément pas de chance avec la société de ventes PBA...

According to Noce, this missing South Arabian artefact from Yemen had been purchased for €44,000 by the Parisian Galerie Cybèle.  Upon learning that the piece was the subject of a criminal investigation, the gallery's owner, Jean-Pierre Montesino, handed the piece over to the French police and reimbursed his client.  

Montesino, however, was unable to recover his losses.  More than ten years had passed since the original auction, placing the transaction beyond the period in which he could seek compensation from Pierre Bergé & Associés.  When he attempted to pursue the seller listed on the sales documentation, he discovered that the name recorded on the invoice belonged not to the consignor but to the transport company that had handled the shipment.