US to return 77 looted antiquities to Yemen

The US has agreed to return 77 antiquities to Yemen which had been stolen from the war-torn country, authorities confirmed yesterday. Before being repatriated to Yemen’s internationally-recognised government, the ancient artefacts will be “temporarily” housed at the Washington-based Smithsonian Institution, which is a group 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.

AFP reported that the announcement was made jointly by the prosecutor’s office, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Smithsonian Institution. It follows a campaign by New York state’s justice department dating back several years to restore antiquities looted from around the world and which have ended up in the state’s museums and galleries.

A press release issued by the Smithsonian Institute yesterday said the objects “will enter the custody of the National Museum of Asian Art Feb. 21 as part of a repatriation ceremony hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen Government in Washington, D.C.”

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The repatriation “is the first time in almost 20 years that the U.S. government has returned cultural property to Yemen. The previous repatriation in 2004 involved the return of a single funerary stele (carved stone) to the Yemeni embassy,” the institute added.

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.

The 64 carved stone heads were confiscated in the US as part of a 2012 plea bargain from an antiquities smuggler, Mousa Khouli, also known as “Morris” Khouli, the district attorney’s statement said. The antiquities were imported into the US from Dubai using false documentation.

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.

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