The United States has returned 77 looted antiquities to Yemen
The United States has returned 77 looted antiquities to Yemen. The announcement was made by the US authorities on Tuesday, adding the objects would be housed “temporarily” in a museum in Washington in line with an agreement with the war-torn country’s government.
The pieces are “64 relief carved stone heads, 11 Quran manuscript pages, a bronze inscribed bowl, and a Funerary Stele” from Minaean tribal cultures in northwest Yemen’s highlands dating back to the 1st century BCE, Breon Peace, the district attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
The 64 carved stone heads had been 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 DA’s statement said.
Yemen’s ambassador Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, expressed his “deep gratitude” to New York, according to the statement.
“I also affirm my substantial appreciation to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art for agreeing to temporarily hold these antiquities until they are fully repatriated back to Yemen in the future,” Al-Hadhrami said.
