US TO RETURN 77 LOOTED ANTIQUITIES TO YEMEN

Fri 24 February 2023:

Authorities confirmed Wednesday that the US has agreed to return 77 antiques to Yemen that were stolen from the nation. Before being transferred to Yemen’s internationally-recognized government, the ancient antiquities will be “temporarily” held at the Washington-based Smithsonian Institution, which is a consortium of museums and galleries.

According to a statement by Breon Peace, the district attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the items include “64 relief carved stone heads, 11 Quran manuscript pages, a bronze inscribed bowl, and a Funerary Stele” from Minaean tribal cultures in north-west Yemen’s highlands dating from the first century BCE.

The items returned to Yemen include 11 folios from early Qurans. Credit: Erica J. Knight

The prosecutor’s office, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the Smithsonian Institution together made the statement. It comes after a long-running campaign by the justice department of New York state to recover artifacts that had been stolen from all over the world and ended up in the state’s museums and galleries.

The repatriation “marks the first time in nearly 20 years that Yemen has received cultural property back from the United States. The sole funerary stele (carved stone) from the previous repatriation, which took place in 2004, was sent to the Yemeni embassy “said the institute.

Stone stelae on display at a repatriation ceremony, hosted by Yemen’s embassy in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Credit: Erica J. Knight

Welcoming the move, Yemen’s Ambassador to the US, Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, said: “On behalf of the people and Government of Yemen, we are thrilled to see Yemen retaking ownership of its cultural heritage.”

“With the current situation in Yemen, it is not the right time to bring the objects back into the country. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is a global leader in the field of cultural heritage and preservation. We are pleased to see these objects in their care,” he added.

According to the district attorney, the 64 carved stone heads were seized in the US as part of a 2012 plea agreement with antiquities smuggler Mousa Khouli, also known as “Morris” Khouli. The artifacts were brought into the US from Dubai with forged papers.

In November last year it was reported that over 4,000 Yemeni historical artefacts have been looted and smuggled out of the country, with many being auctioned off and ending up in the US and other countries.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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