The United States has returned 36 Syrian cultural artifacts, with an estimated value of more than five million U.S. dollars, to Syria and its current government. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York announced this in a press release on September 23, 2026. The return was part of efforts to combat the illicit trade in cultural property and to repatriate looted and illegally exported artifacts.
The returned objects include artifacts from various historical periods, such as mosaics, stone sculptures, and other archaeological finds from northwestern Syria. The objects were identified and seized from private collections and art institutions in the United States.
Combating Illegal Trade
The return is the result of an investigation by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s Anti-Cultural Property Trafficking Unit. The investigation targeted international networks involved in the illegal trade and smuggling of cultural property. The items in question come from the collections of world-renowned antiquities dealers, private collectors, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Protecting Syria’s Cultural Heritage
A representative of the Syrian Embassy in Washington emphasized that the return of the cultural property represents an important step toward protecting Syria’s cultural heritage and strengthening cooperation between Syria and the United States.
The return of these cultural artifacts signifies the recovery of a part of Syria’s historical and cultural heritage. At the same time, it underscores the importance of international cooperation in combating the illicit trade in antiquities and in protecting cultural heritage—particularly in light of the looting and destruction to which numerous Syrian archaeological sites were subjected during the war years.
The repatriation also serves as an example of cooperation among states, law enforcement agencies, museums, and private collections in addressing the issue of illegally exported cultural property. Furthermore, the repatriation can be viewed as part of ongoing international efforts to protect Syria’s cultural heritage, clarify the provenance of cultural property, and facilitate legally justified returns to the country of origin.
Treasures from Palmyra and the Hittites
Among the most important repatriated objects now arriving at the National Museum in Damascus is a monumental limestone sculpture from the late 2nd century CE. It depicts a reclining man surrounded by a woman and three children. The sculpture once adorned the wall of a burial chamber in one of Palmyra’s necropolises. It was removed from Palmyra and smuggled via Dubai before parts of the ancient city were destroyed by the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) between 2015 and 2017.
The mosaic of Telete and Eros dates from the 3rd century B.C. and depicts a mythological scene: the wedding of Telete and Eros in the presence of Aphrodite and the three goddesses of beauty. In 2021, it was seized by U.S. authorities as part of a collection of stolen Syrian and Lebanese mosaics.
Three Hittite female figurines were crafted in northwestern Syria in the 2nd millennium B.C. The figurines appeared on the international art market in the late 1980s and early 1990s and found their way into the collection of a U.S. antiquities collector.
Further Repatriations from France and Switzerland
As early as July of this year, France returned archaeological cultural artifacts to Syria during an official ceremony attended by the Syrian and French presidents. The objects had previously been on display in an exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.
Switzerland also returned three rare cultural artifacts to the Syrian authorities in 2021. The objects had been stolen from the ancient city of Palmyra before 2009 and were subsequently stored for years in warehouses at the Free Port of Geneva.
Syrian cultural artifacts were also seized in Germany. These include, among other things, cuneiform tablets from Ebla. One of these tablets could be verifiably linked to the 2015 looting of the Idlib Museum. It was seized in 2024 by the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office and the Heilbronn Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Heilbronn district. These cultural artifacts seized in Germany have not yet been returned to Syria.
Further information:
https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-return-of-36-antiquities-to-the-people-of-syria/?utm
Syria recovers 36 stolen antiquities in New York
https://www.presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/110980/5718893
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