Thirty-six antiquities worth more than $5 million have been returned to Syria in what the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office described as a historic repatriation of cultural heritage.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. announced the return at a ceremony on Wednesday, saying the artefacts had been recovered through a complex, international investigation involving law enforcement, museums and officials across multiple countries.
“Repatriation ceremonies are a powerful reminder that preserving cultural heritage transcends any border or nationality,” Bragg said, thanking the partners involved in the investigation.
Mohamad Naser Kanatri, chargé d’affaires of the Syrian Arab Republic’s embassy in Washington, called the return a demonstration of Syrian-American cooperation and a shared commitment to protecting cultural heritage.
Ancient treasures recovered from trafficking investigations
Among the objects returned are a monumental stone relief from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and 14 mosaics from a Roman-era villa in Syria.
The Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit said the artefacts were among 31 Middle Eastern and North African antiquities allegedly trafficked into New York by Lebanese antiquities dealer Georges Lotfi.
The Palmyran relief, weighing more than 1,000 pounds, dates to the late second century CE. The limestone funerary sculpture depicts a reclining man surrounded by a woman and three children and was originally part of a Palmyrene tomb.
Investigators said the relief was removed from Palmyra and smuggled to Dubai before the ancient city suffered extensive destruction by Daesh terror group between 2015 and 2017.
Another highlight is the Telete and Eros Mosaic, a monumental third-century B.C.E. floor mosaic depicting the mythological wedding of Telete and Eros alongside Aphrodite and the Three Graces.
Artefacts linked to major New York investigations
Thirteen of the returned antiquities were seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Manhattan DA’s Office said it has seized 402 antiquities valued at $98.7 million from the museum since 2017.
Four other objects came from the collection of billionaire investor and ancient-art collector Michael Steinhardt. The office previously seized 180 antiquities valued at $70 million from Steinhardt following a multiyear international investigation.
Steinhardt entered a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that included a lifetime ban on acquiring additional antiquities.
The latest repatriation also includes three Syro-Hittite female idols dating to the second millennium CE and originating in northwest Syria.
According to the DA’s Office, the idols appeared on the art market in New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s and were later acquired by Steinhardt.
