77 artefacts, including relief-carved stone heads, pages from a Quran manuscript, a bronze bowl with an inscription, and a funerary stele, will be returned to Yemen by the United States. The artefacts, which are from the Minaean tribal civilizations in Yemen’s northwest highlands, date to the first century BCE.
For Yemen, which has been devastated by an eight-year civil war, this is a good development.
The court department of New York state initiated a campaign to return plundered antiquities to their countries of origin, and as a result, these artefacts have now been returned.
Since the initiative began, at least 700 pieces have been returned to 14 nations during 2020 and 2021, including Cambodia, Egypt, Greece, India, Iraq, Italy, and Pakistan.
The 64 carved stone heads were confiscated in the United States as part of a 2012 plea bargain from an antiquities smuggler named Mousa Khouli, also known as ‘Morris’ Khouli.
The antiquities were imported into the US from Dubai using fake documentation.
Post Your Comments