The Northampton Sekhemka statue is an Ancient Egyptian artifact, given by the Marquess of Northampton to Northampton Museum, in or about 1870. The statue dates from the 5th dynasty and depicts Sekhemka the scribe with his wife, Sitmerit. It was the subject of a controversial sale in July 2014, that raised questions of the museum's ownership and the ethics of selling artifacts. The statue was sold to an unidentified buyer for £15.76m, which broke the existing world record for Ancient Egyptian art at auction. On 1 August 2014, Northampton Museum had its accreditation removed by the Arts Council England, which ruled that the sale did not meet the accredited standards for museums in managing their collections.