Lebanon receives trio of stolen artefacts recovered in New York

The ancient treasures were looted from the country during its civil war and were recently recovered by New York authorities.

Society

1 min read

The New Arab

13 January, 2018

The treasures include a marble bull's head dating to about 360 BC [AFP]

Lebanon received a trio of ancient artefacts looted from the country during its civil war and recently recovered by New York authorities, the state news agency has reported.

The treasures, which arrived back in Lebanon on Friday, include a marble bull's head dating to about 360 BC, which had been excavated at a Phoenician temple in south Lebanon decades ago.

It was discovered by an eagle-eyed curator at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art last year, where it had been on loan from a collector.

The other two are marble torsos from the 4th and 6th century BC.

Scores of antiquities were looted from Lebanon during its 1975-1990 Civil War.

The Manhattan district attorney's office formed an antiquities trafficking unit last year to repatriate stolen artefacts.

The National Museum in Beirut will display the artefacts in February.

In July, US company Hobby Lobby Stores - one of the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world - agreed to pay a $3 million federal fine and return ancient Iraqi artefacts which were smuggled from the Middle East after being intentionally mislabelled.

Iraq says 15,000 artefacts have been looted since the US-led invasion in 2003, including statues and treasure from the Akkadian era (2161-2371 BC).

Agencies contributed to this report.