Lebanese museum returns artefacts from Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra

Beirut, Jan. 23 / BNA / A private Lebanese museum, Thursday, brought back five Roman artifacts from the ancient city of Palmyra, a site damaged during the decade-long Syrian conflict, to Damascus on Thursday by a private Lebanese museum where they had been on display for a year. 2018.

The head of Syrian antiquities, Muhammad Nazir Awad, said, at a handover ceremony held by the Lebanese National Museum in Beirut, that the limestone statues and carved funerary stones dating back to the second and third centuries AD Roman were returned at the initiative of a private Lebanese collector.

Awad said the art collector, Jawad Adra, had acquired them from European auction houses before the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, describing his actions as a “gracious initiative”.

The Syrian official added that the pieces that were on display at the Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon have returned to their “original homeland”.

During the Syrian conflict, the site of Palmyra, one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world, fell under the control of the Islamic State, which blew up some of its main landmarks, including the Arc de Triomphe.

Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel Karim, said talks are underway to arrange the return of other artifacts from the National Museum in Beirut to Syria.

HF