A private Lebanese museum delivered five Roman artefacts from the historic city of Palmyra on Thursday, which was devastated during the decade long conflicts of Syria and Damascus.
Syrian antiquities head Mohamed Nazir Awad said at a handover ceremony organised by Lebanon’s National Museum in Beirut that the limestone sculptures and sculpted burial stones dating from the Roman second and third centuries AD were returned on the initiative of a private Lebanese collector.
According to Awad, the collector Jawad Adra bought them from European auction houses before Syria’s crisis broke out in 2011, who described his activities as a philanthropic endeavour. The items, which had previously been displayed in the Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon, were returned to their native motherland.
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During the Syrian conflict, the Islamic State took possession of Palmyra, one of the ancient world’s most important cultural centres, and blew up several of its most iconic monuments, including the Arch of Triumph.
Ali Abdul Karim, Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon, said discussions were ongoing to negotiate the repatriation of additional treasures from the National Museum of Beirut to Syria.
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